


Smoak or Stark?

by laxit21



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, I didn't set out with a ship in mind, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pairings May Change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-03
Updated: 2019-06-28
Packaged: 2019-07-06 13:14:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 44
Words: 55,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15886767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laxit21/pseuds/laxit21
Summary: Howard Stark was a known adulterer. Roughly a week after he and his wife are killed in a car accident, their son Tony becomes aware of his younger sister, Felicity Smoak. How will events for both the Arrow and the Avengers change as a result of their sibling relationship?(Canon divergence for both Arrow and the MCU)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story goes AU after season 2 of Arrow and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. A few details are changed before that, but not many. Relevant sidenotes will be shared each chapter.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our story begins.

**December 29, 1991**

Edwin Jarvis sighed as he knocked on the door of Tony’s room. It had been 13 days since Howard and Maria had died, and nine since the funeral. The butler knew his charge was distraught and mourning his parents, but there was some information he needed to know.

“I’m not hungry and I don’t want to.” Tony yelled. He was assuming Jarvis had come to try and get him to eat. Or worse, talk about his feelings.

“Please open the door Tony. There’s something you should know.” Edwin said.

He heard movement on the other side, followed by the door being unlocked. “What?”

“I held off on telling you this initially. I wanted to give you time to grieve and let the right person inform you, but I don’t think Mr. Stane or Mr. Bloom intends to tell you.”

“Tell me what? What does Obie know?”

“You have a younger sister, sir.” Jarvis said, cutting to the chase.

“What? No, I-“

He took the stack of papers in his hand and offered it to Tony, who took it. “These are your father’s bank statement for the last five years. Every month for the last three years, he wired the same amount of money to a woman in Las Vegas, Donna Smoak. I’ve also attached her contact information.”

“Dad cheated on Mom. There’s a shocker.” He said sarcastically. “Surprised he didn’t try to buy or bully the woman getting an abortion.”

“He tried. She’s rather stubborn. They eventually came to an agreement. He paid her monthly to support the child, and she never had to see or hear from him again.”

“What am I supposed to do with this?”

“I don’t know. It’s your decision to make.” Jarvis said. “I’d suggest at least calling her.”

“Dad and mom’s deaths made the news.”

“Yes, it did.” He left Tony behind to think it over. He wouldn’t admit it, but he hoped he’d reach out. The little girl, Felicity, was the only biological family Tony now had. Perhaps, having her in his life would help him cope with the loss of his parents.

* * *

 

**Las Vegas**

**January 5, 1992**

Tony stood in front of the apartment door, unsure if he should knock. He didn’t know this woman. If Howard hadn’t been driving drunk and gotten himself killed, he never would’ve known she existed. He wasn’t sure if it was selfish or not, reaching out to her. Her daughter was his family, but being a Stark wasn’t easy. The decision was made for him when the door swung open.

“Are you gonna stand there all day or-?” A blonde woman in her mid-twenties asked. Howard didn’t usually go for blondes.

“No, I- I’m Tony-“

“I know who you are. Come inside.” The woman said. “I’m Donna.”

“Do you- you know why I’m here, I’m guessing?”

“I can guess. After your parents died, you found out about Felicity. I’m very sorry for your loss.” He gave a tight smile and nodded, but didn’t speak. “How did you find out, if I may ask?”

“My butler, Jarvis. He found- he told me about her and gave me your info. I didn’t know- Dad never told me, never mentioned anything, and Mom didn’t know-”

“Your mother knew. Two months ago, she called me. I was expecting to be yelled at, told to leave her and her family alone. I wouldn’t have blamed her, I did sleep with her husband. Instead, she wanted to know about Felicity, make sure she had everything she needed.” Donna said sadly. “Your mother was a very kind woman.”

“Yes, she was.” Tony felt a pang in his chest. “Can I- I know she doesn’t know me, and didn’t know my dad, but-“

“You wanna meet Felicity?” Donna asked. “Come on, she’s in the kitchen.”

She led Tony further into the apartment. They turned a corner and Tony saw a brunette toddler sitting at the kitchen table with a crayon in her hand. Her hair was up in two pigtails and she had a pair of glasses sliding off her nose. She was completely focused on what she was doing and didn’t notice them walking in.

“Felicity? I want you to meet someone.” this got the girl’s attention and she turned to look at her mom. “This is Tony.”

“Hey.” The girl kept staring, so Tony pointed to her drawing. “What’s that?”

“It’s a robot.”

“Do you like robots?” He asked and she nodded.

“They’re my favoritest.” She said. “Why do you look like me?”  Tony and Felicity had some similar features, dark hair being the most noticeable. They also had similar face shapes and cheekbones. He looked over at Donna helplessly. He wasn’t sure what she wanted Felicity to know. She explained that Tony was her brother and wanted to meet her. She left out the truth about Howard for now. Felicity was only three after all.

Over the next fifteen years, Tony kept in touch with Donna and Felicity. He visited a few times a year. While Felicity was still underage, they kept the visits secret. The one thing Donna asked was that Felicity got to have a normal childhood. She didn’t want Felicity growing up dealing with tabloids or nosy reporters or sycophants.  No one blinked twice at a billionaire going to Vegas once or twice a year to let loose anyway.

Tony had only ever told two people about Felicity: Rhodey and Pepper. When Felicity went off to MIT, he even introduced them to her. He was pretty sure that Obie and the family lawyers were aware of who he was visiting and why, but didn’t say anything. Howard had left a small trust for Felicity in his will after all. They weren’t causing a scandal or affecting SI’s stocks, so Stane seemed content pretending Felicity and Donna didn’t exist.

Until the day Tony went missing in Afghanistan, that is. When Stark Industries made the announcement about Tony going missing in, Stane made sure to sneak in a comment about his family wishing for privacy in this difficult time. The media went wild speculating what that meant.

Her name didn’t get leaked, but Tony’s friends stepped up in case it did. Happy went to Vegas in case Donna needed to be relocated, while Pepper went to Boston to keep an eye on Felicity. Pepper wanted to feel useful and Felicity wanted to be around someone who knew what was going on. If Stane hadn’t died shortly after Tony returned home, Donna was ready to kill him herself for using Felicity like that and throwing her to the wolves. His return meant the buzz around his family died down and the blonde computer genius graduated MIT with her whole family there. She was offered a job at SI, but turned it down, wanting to make her own way in the world for a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?
> 
> Question: what nickname do you think Tony'd come up with for Felicity?


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Whiplash Incident & Battle of New York from Felicity's POV, and the Undertaking from Tony's.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter & the next kinda speed through everything from Iron Man 2 to the end of Arrow season 2. Since I'm not changing much, it focuses on the other sibling's reaction to what's going on.

**Starling City-April 2010**

Felicity had told ALEX, the AI she’d built with minimal help from Tony, to call him before the live broadcast of Stark Expo even ended. Whiplash had been defeated and Justin Hammer had been dealt with, so now she wanted answers. She’d spoken to Tony only a week ago, yet he hadn’t told her any of this was going on. The last time they spoke, he was laughing about making Senator Stern lose it during the hear about the Iron Man suit.

She grew angrier the longer the phone rang. Soon enough, he answered. “You better start explaining.”

“I know, I know. But first, I need to confess something. Up until two days ago, I was dying. That’s why I was screening your calls.” He said. “And your visit from Bloom.”

Four days earlier, Tony’s personal lawyer, Alan Bloom, had called Felicity wanting to meet with her. At their meeting, he informed her that Tony had signed over 80% of his shares in Stark Industries as well as made her his sole beneficiary. She immediately called Tony for an explanation, which she didn’t get.

“You were dying?!”

“Yeah, blood poisoning from the arc reactor.” He said. “It’s all fixed. Got to invent a new element too.”

“I’m gonna kill you. You know that right? How could you not tell me?”

“I didn’t tell anyone. Not Rhodey, not Pepper, no one. If Natashalie hadn’t stabbed me in the neck with that needle-“

“Someone stabbed you in the neck with a needle?”

“Can we- can you ditch the Loud Voice for now? My head hurts enough as is.”

“Fine. Explain.”

Tony then spent the next hour explaining SHIELD, Natasha, Vanko and everything relevant to what had just happened and was currently going on. As soon as he finished, she yelled at him for not telling her any of this, expressed disgust and distrust of SHIELD for their treatment of Tony, and finally told him she was happy he was alive. A week later, she mailed Tony the forms she was supposed to sign at her meeting with Bloom, unsigned. A bright pink sticky note with only the word ‘NOPE!’ was on the front page.

* * *

 

**Starling City-May 2012**

After the attack in Germany by Loki, Felicity called out of work the next day. She’d seen her brother arrive to the attack and, along with Captain America, stop Loki from hurting anyone else. She still didn’t feel at ease about the situation and could sense something else was going to happen. About two hours later, she got a video call from Tony.

He appeared onscreen with another man she hadn’t met before, but recognized. “Brucie, Felicity. Felicity, Brucie.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Dr. Banner. I enjoyed your paper on antimatter collisions.” She told him. the scientist blushed slightly and stuttered out a thank you. “I’m guessing you didn’t call just to say hi.”

“You know me too well, baby sis. Uncle Nicky’s being…..shady as usual. J is trying to find out all his little secrets-“

“But you want my help because its asymmetric, that’s where I live and two minds are faster than one.” She finished. “Tell me that this is some actual black ops, shady operation, and not some desire to be a pest, and I’ll do it.”

“Why would a paramilitary counter-terrorism and intelligence agency be doing anything related to clean energy?” he shot back. The story Fury had given him didn’t make sense at all.

It didn’t take her long to break into the files and discover why they were experimenting with the Tesseract. She hung up with Tony right before Fury stormed in, demanding an explanation.

Hours later, she watched in horror as Loki led an alien army to attack the Earth. She saw her brother locate the nuke intended to wipe out Manhattan and saw him fly it towards the portal. She was about to start crying when ALEX announced she had a phone call.

“Hey, Lisy.” Tony said from the other end.

“Last time you called me that, Stane had ripped your reactor out.” She said. “You only call me that when you have really bad news.”

“I don’t- you’re right. I just- I wanted to say-“ Then, the call cut out. JARVIS came onto the line and told her he’d lost contact with Tony’s suit. Miraculously, Tony survived, and saved the day. He ended up sending Felicity an entire case of La Fitte Rothschild to apologize for giving her a heart attack.

* * *

 

**New York-May 2013**

Tony and Pepper stood unblinking as they watched Moira Queen tell the world about the Undertaking. Tony had never trusted her or her first husband, something about them seemed off. He guessed this could be why. She did, after all, try to talk him into a joint project with QC centered around his arc reactor technology. Pepper didn’t like Moira because of how dismissive she’d been the few times they’d met. Robert Queen might’ve slept with every secretary he ever had, but that didn’t mean Tony did or that Pepper wasn’t qualified or skilled at her job. Mostly, however, they were both worried about Felicity.

Bruce walked out of the elevator to ask Tony about unusual readings at that moment. He took one look at the couple before turning his attention to the TV. He immediately walked out of the room. His questions could wait.

“J, call Felicity. If ALEX tries to screen the call, use the override code.” Tony said. Tony had an override code to ALEX in case he thought Felicity was in mortal danger, and she had one to JARVIS. They argued about it after Whiplash, but she finally got him to see her side of things and agree.

“Hello.” She said calmly. Way too calmly.

“Tell me you went to visit your mom. Tell me you’re on vacation or something. Please tell me you aren’t in the city.”

“I can’t. And I’m not leaving.”

“Are you crazy? J, get the Mark 11 ready for deployment.”

“No! Tony, I- I can help. I can stop it. I’ve been-“

“You’ve been what?”

“Ok, so my new hobby isn’t yoga like I told you. I’ve kinda been…helping the Starling City vigilante.”

“You’ve been working with the vigilante? You turned down my offer of a suit but you’re one of Oliver Queen’s merry men?”

“One, the vigilante isn’t Oliver Queen. Two, this isn’t the time to argue about it, okay? People are gonna die. Merlyn’s going to destroy half the city. I need to go.”

“Don’t insult my intelligence. I know it’s him. He and I are gonna have a chat about this real soon.”

“Sir, there are several suits in Malibu that could get to Starling City within the next hour.” JARVIS spoke up. “They could be useful for crowd control or search and rescue.”

“Send them. And find a way into Felicity’s systems. I wanna see what she sees. I can lend her a hand at least.”

They weren’t able to completely stop Malcolm Merlyn, but one of the Markov devices was destroyed and thanks to the suits there were only around 300 casualties.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?
> 
> I won't update this quickly forever so enjoy while it lasts


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity reacts to the SHIELD/Hydra revelation and Tony reacts to the siege.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few things:  
> 1) Felicity hasn't told Oliver or Digg the truth about who she is yet.  
> 2) I don't like the whole 'we need a cover so you HAVE to be my assistant' angle so I changed it.  
> 3) Felicity hasn't met any of the other Avengers yet.  
> 4) This glosses over a lot, which I'll expand upon later.  
> 5)I stole some AOS characters, but I'm not following the canon of that show.

**Starling City- October 2013**

Isabel Rochev sat in the Queen Consolidated boardroom feeling like she was on top of the world. She’d already bought 45% of QC’s stock. Queen owned 45%. Soon, the board would release the remaining 10%. Thanks to some snooping, she’d done the math and learned he could buy maybe 3% more, but not the 6% he’d need to be the majority owner. She’d finally get what Robert promised her.

Oliver, Digg and Felicity were beginning to feel nervous. Isabel was clearly out for blood and Oliver’s options for keeping QC in the family, and out of Stellmoor’s hands were limited. The board members entered the room talking. Oliver greeted them and they spared him a glance before contuining their conversation. Rochev smirked, seeing it as a sign in her favor. She started to open the meeting, but the chairman cut her off.

“I’m afraid we’re waiting on one more person.”

“Who?” Oliver and Isabel both asked. He was curious, she was angry.

“I’m not at liberty to say.”

“Sorry I’m late.” A voice said from the doorway. Everyone turned and saw a man in his late twenties or early thirties. He was wearing a basic, medium priced suit and the only noteworthy thing about him were his sunglasses and the white cane in his hands. “I tend to get lost very easily.”

Felicity’s jaw dropped but she recovered before anyone noticed.

“And you are?”

“Matthew Murdock. From the firm Nelson and Murdock.”

“Never heard of them.”

“We aren’t based in Washington state. I’m here on behalf of a client.”

“What client?”

“They prefer to remain anonymous for now.” He answered. “Mr. Chairman?”

“His client made the board a very lucrative offer. One that would help this company recover from the events of this past May.” He began. “They agreed to invest several million dollars of equity capital in return for a 10% stake in the company. We agreed.”

“If I own 45% and he owns 45% and Mr. Murdock’s client own 10%, then no one is the majority owner.” Isabel pointed out. “Who controls the company?”

The board debated, and eventually settled on Oliver and Isabel being co-CEOs. The meeting ended and Felicity offered to show Matt the way out so he wouldn’t get lost again. He asked if she’d help him hail a cab and she agreed, seeing it as an excuse to get answers.

“Tony or Pepper?” She asked when she knew they were out of earshot. “Who bought the last 10%?” She’d met Matt on a fluke when he was at Columbia and Felicity was at MIT. They became friends easily and when he graduated law school, she was his first client. She sued Tony as a joke for eating all her ice cream a few days earlier, which made everyone laugh. Both Tony and Pepper knew Felicity was worried about Isabel’s hostile takeover and losing her job. She kept turning down offers at SI, so they had to help QC in order to help her.

“They both technically bought it, but on your behalf.” Matt admitted. “Tony called it an early Chanukah present. He’ll be here in two days to hand deliver the forms.”

Two days later, Pepper and Tony signed ownership of their stake in QC over to Felicity. She also got promoted to the head of Applied Sciences, after the board ‘accidentally’ found out about Felicity’s numerous lucrative offers from both Stark Industries and Wayne Enterprises.

He still called her to rant. “Can’t believe Queen tried to make you his assistant. You want me to fly over there and kick his ass? Maybe bring Rhodey with me. He’s a 4-time drop-out while you have two Master’s and a PhD from MIT, but you’re supposed to be fetching coffee.”

“I don’t need you to fight my battles for me. He hurts my feelings, and he’s all yours.”

She regretted saying that a month later when Pepper had let slip what Felicity had told her happened in Russia and Tony showed up at her apartment wanting a piece of him.

* * *

 

**Starling City-April 2014**

Felicity Smoak was starting to feel overwhelmed. She needed to find out what Slade’s plan was, figure out how to stop it, keep everyone safe, run her department and now this. Now, SHIELD was apparently Hydra, they wanted to kill anyone who was a threat to them and the helicarriers, that Tony had helped built, were how they meant to do it.

The next thing she knew, the helicarriers were falling from the sky and all of SHIELD’s files were readily available on Google. She wondered, briefly, why Captain America hadn’t reached out to Tony for help. From what he’d told her, Steve Rogers didn’t know enough about computers to release that information in a smart way. So, they just dumped anything and everything and walked away. Tony, or any competent computer scientist, could’ve filtered out the Hydra files from the SHIELD files, only leaking the secrets they had to.

Feeling a sense of responsibility, Felicity tried to do what she could with the information already out there. Maybe if she acted quickly enough, she could prevent more SHIELD agents, actual SHIELD agents not Hydra, from being captured, tortured or killed. She encrypted the SHIELD files she could and downloaded all the Hydra files to read later. They might be important someday. At that moment, lives were at stake.

"The logical first place to start is anyone in deep cover or stationed in countries the US is barely on civil terms with, so that's what I've focused on so far." Felicity said as soon as Tony answered the phone. "No offense to Canada or the Netherlands, but I'm less worried about the agents there as opposed to Russia, China and North Korea."

"Yeah, Hand, Blake and two of the Koenigs are working on it. Seemed like a good idea, giving the agents we're trying to save a familiar face." Tony said. "They were the first ones I cleared and was able to get to."

"Good, I talked to my friend Lyla at ARGUS. She put me in touch with the team of US Marshals relocating the families of the burned agents." she said distractedly. "Please tell me you're gonna give Rogers and Romanov an earful about this?"

"Definitely."

The events with SHIELD did finally make news outlets stop talking about Malcolm Merlyn’s mysterious death, which was good. Two weeks earlier, he’d been found in a bad part of Chicago with half his head blown off.  it went unspoken but everyone could guess what happened. He’d been killed by the angry relative of one of the Undertaking’s victims. Not the way he wanted to die, but also not surprising.

* * *

 

**New York-May 2014**

Tony could sense that something big was about to happen in Starling City. The same day Isabel Rochev tricked QC’s board into making her CEO, Felicity lost her job and told Tony that Rochev was actually a supervillain. Felicity didn’t really need the job, but knowing her work in Applied Sciences might help someone like Isabel grated on her.

That same night, she called Tony about something she named ‘Vaccination Protocol’. Unluckily for Isabel and Slade Wilson, who Felicity’d told her brother about, Star Labs wasn’t the only place working on an antidote for Mirakuru. QC was looking for a cure under the table, they knew Star Labs was, and Felicity had sent a sample of Roy’s blood to Stark Industries months ago. It didn’t take long to find a solution, but Felicity held off on using it until now. They even found a way to make the cure airborne.

When Felicity called Tony the night of the siege, he could hear Oliver and his team in the background questioning her about already having a solution and not using it earlier. She shot back by telling them her aim wasn’t to cure one or two people, but everyone under the influence of Mirakuru. She could sense that Slade’s plan was more than just injecting random people.

The siege was stopped, Slade Wilson was defeated, Isabel was dead and the head of ARGUS, Amanda Waller, was in big trouble for trying to bomb the city to kill one man, a threat she’d known about for months but didn’t bother telling anyone about. After meeting Waller, Felicity described her as ‘the only person more shady than Fury’ and both siblings began keeping track of ARGUS’s moves. He called Felicity the day after Wilson was stopped.

“So, it seems you had an interesting night.”

“Yeah, you could say that.” she said. “I’m just glad I never have to see Isabitch again.”

“Still, you okay?”

“As okay as I can be. With no job and the city recovering from another attack.”

“You know, you can always come work for the family business.”

“Family business?” he heard someone say on the other end. “Who’re you talking to?”

“Just my brother. He called to make sure I was okay.” Felicity hadn’t told her teammates who she really was. There just hadn’t been time and she couldn’t just blurt out that she was Tony Stark’s sister.

“You have a brother?” Another voice, John Diggle’s if he wasn’t mistaken, said.

“Half-brother, yeah. And he knows my answer is no.”

“Fine, keep the dream team broken up.” Tony scoffed. “You comin’ to visit soon?”

“Yeah, in a few weeks probably.” She hung up shortly after.

Tony looked over at Pepper and said, “I think a visit to Starling is in order.” The redhead agreed wholeheartedly. They both needed to get a few things straight with Oliver Queen.

Felicity, Digg and Oliver landed at the private airstrip on the outskirts of Starling. their journey to Lian Yu and back was much calmer than the one they took back in October. They knew there would be an uptick in trouble from criminals over the next few weeks, but wanted to celebrate the win for a little longer. Everyone was happy, until they stepped off the plane and found a small group waiting for them.

“You and I need to have a talk.” Tony said as he glared at Oliver. Behind him, his companions nodded. “Also, Felicity, what the hell were you thinking?”

“Hi, Tony.” The blonde said awkwardly as Digg and Oliver turned to face her, wanting an explanation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?
> 
> And yes, I killed Malcolm Merlyn via narration. He deserved it.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity has some explaining to do

“You and I need to have a talk.” Tony said as he glared at Oliver. Behind him, his companions nodded. “Also, Felicity, what the hell were you thinking?”

“Hi, Tony.” The blonde said awkwardly as Digg and Oliver turned to face her, wanting an explanation.

“That’s all you have to say? ‘Hi Tony’ is all we get after the stunt you pulled?” He gestured to himself, Pepper and Happy.

“You wanna talk about dangerous stunts?” she crossed her arms, ready to argue.

“Ok, how about we just-“

“Digg, I don’t need your help. My brother’s just being an asshat.” Felicity said. “And a hypocrite after he gave his address to a terrorist.”

“Wait? Brother?” He and Oliver asked at the same time.

Suddenly, a number of things that had happened over the last year made sense. The Iron Legion showing up during the Undertaking and helping minimize the damage. Felicity being near inconsolable last Christmas, right around the time Tony’s mansion was attacked and he was declared dead. Stark Industries already having an antidote for Mirakuru ready before Slade’s final assault.

“I never got the chance to tell you. and I couldn’t just drop a bomb like that on you, but yes. Tony Stark is my brother.” She said.

“Your brother is Iron Man?”

“Yes. And I’d like some answers, Arrow.” Tony took a step forward. Oliver shot Felicity a look of betrayal which Tony caught. “She didn’t tell me. Genius, remember? I worked it out myself. She even tried to tell me I was wrong but-“

“Why’re you here?” Oliver asked.

“Well, you tried to make Fliss, my brilliant sister, your assistant. There’s what happened in Russia and with Sara Lance. Oh, and you used her as bait for a psychopath. All of which I’m pissed about.”

“I didn’t-“

“Okay.” Felicity said, breaking up the staring contest. “We’re gonna go somewhere else to have this conversation. And we aren’t gonna bring any weapons or suits with us.”

They drove to Verdant in silence with Pepper, Tony and Happy following them. “Please say something.”

“The family business you didn’t wanna join was Stark Industries? Why? That’s your father’s legacy.”

“Not to me, I never met him. I didn’t know they existed and Tony didn’t know I existed until a month after the Starks’ accident.” She said. “My mom was a cocktail waitress. Howard didn’t take fidelity seriously at all. He was unlucky and slept with the only woman he couldn’t intimidate or bribe into making his mistake go away. ”

Neither Digg or Oliver knew how to respond to that. John couldn’t imagine what that must’ve been like for Felicity and her mom and was speechless at how cold Howard Stark sounded. Oliver had always known his father was a cheater, he used to think it was genetic, but even after learning about the Undertaking or his relationship with Isabel couldn’t believe someone would go that far.

“Why Starling? You chose the job here for a reason.” Oliver asked, breaking the silence.

“Two reasons. I wanted to do it on my own. My brains and some help from Tony got me into MIT, the family fortune paid for it. I got my job at QC because my education and experience spoke for themselves, not because of who my family was.” Felicity said. “I also wasn’t, and I’m still not, ready for the world to know who I really am. You two know who I am. Pepper, Rhodey, Happy, Bruce Wayne a few lawyers and Dr. Banner are the only other ones that know. If I took a job at Stark Industries, it eventually would’ve gotten out. I know you probably feel kinda betrayed, but I couldn’t find the right time to tell you.”

“You were gonna tell us, right? You weren’t gonna hide it forever.”

“No, I’ve wanted to tell you since last year, but then the Undertaking, and Oliver ran away and we had to deal with Slade and Sara came back and- there wasn’t a good time.”

“We aren’t mad. Or feeling betrayed. Life gets in the way sometimes.”

They got to the club and moved down into the team’s lair. As soon as the door was closed, Oliver and Tony started to argue about Felicity’s involvement with the team, Oliver using her as bait multiple times, and of course, trying to force Felicity to be a secretary when she had a doctorate.

“-You shouldn’t have let her.”

“She’s an adult. I didn’t want her involved. You didn’t want her involved, but as she kept telling me, it was her choice.” Oliver yelled back. “I did everything I could to avoid taking her into the field or Slade getting anywhere near her, but I couldn’t. She stubbornly insisted. You could’ve stopped her but you didn’t. You’ve known her longer than I have.”

“Can you two stop yelling like I’m not here?” Felicity said. “I don’t need your permission. Or yours. I’m a grown woman who can make her own damn decisions. I made my choices, some of them were good, some of them not so good, but they were my choices. You two don’t get to judge me or blame each other for what I did. So shut it. Both of you.”

Both men opened their mouths to argue, but they could see Felicity was one word away from unleashing her Loud Voice.

“Why don’t we go upstairs and get some food.” Pepper suggested to Felicity. “That flight wore me out and I think you could use a breather.” She nodded and led Pepper upstairs to raid Verdant’s fridge.

“My sister being on Team Arrow or what I think of you aren’t the only reason I’m angry.”

“What is then?”

“You can’t be that stupid. You slept with Rochev and then pulled that ‘I can’t be with someone I really care about’ bullshit. You followed it up by sleeping with Sara Lance. I can understand wanting to keep up your image, but that doesn’t excuse you playing with my sister like that.”

“What do you-?”

“Anyone with eyes can see she’s in love with you. And you keep playing with her emotions and stomping all over them. You don’t feel the same as she does, fine, but don’t ever fucking use them against her again. Or we’re gonna have this conversation with me in my suit next time.”

The room fell into a tense silence and it was only broken when Felicity and Pepper came back downstairs. They talked for a little longer. No longer extremely angry, Felicity wanted to get a few things straight to both Tony and Oliver. they were leaving when Pepper turned to Oliver.

“I’m only going to say this once. Felicity is very important to me. I care a lot about her. if you ever hurt her again, I will make Slade Wilson and Malcolm Merlyn look like saints compared to me. She’s already called me once crying over you. That happens again, I will end you.” the redhead threatened before walking away. The click-clack of her designer heels echoed through the club as she left.

Apart from the few days after Slade’s attack when the authorities were still working on what had happened and cleaning up the mess, Starling was unusually quiet for the first few weeks after the siege. Too much was being looked into, too many questions needed answers and so the criminals of Starling had taken some time off. With the city relatively calm as it recovered from the siege, Felicity finally had time to delve into the leaked Hydra files. She opened one and felt a sense of dread overtake her. She called Tony and said they needed to talk ASAP.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity found something, and now she needs to tell Tony about it. She also makes a new acquaintance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Explanation of this chapters events is at the end.

**New York-June 2014**

The day after Felicity called Tony, saying they needed to talk ASAP, she flew to New York anyway. With what she found, the conversation they needed to have needed to be in person. She also wanted to recruit Pepper’s help with something. She called Tony when she landed before heading to Hell’s Kitchen to see Matt and Foggy about something.

When she walked into their office, Foggy took one look at her and said, “Uh oh.”

“What is it?” Matt asked.

“She’s got…a face. Last time I saw that face was when Anderson tried to get her kicked out of graduate school for turning him down.” Foggy explained.

“Oh.” Matt responded.

“I won’t lie. I’m really pissed, so pissed I can’t even get into it right now. I just wanted to ask if you two could help me with something. I know that field of law isn’t really your specialty but-“

“We’ll do it.” Matt said. “It’s what friends are for. Now, what’s the case?”

Her next stop was Stark Tower. When Tony called her back, the only thing she asked was that she didn’t have to run into the Avengers. She hadn’t met them, except Bruce, and today wasn’t a good day to meet them. Tony might’ve said he liked them, but she needed to judge that for herself. He told her Bruce was the only Avenger there anyway, so she didn’t need to worry.

As soon as she got to the tower, there was someone in the lobby waiting to escort her upstairs. She greeted JARVIS and the elevator ride was pleasant. She got out on the top floor to find Pepper and Tony both in the penthouse waiting. She hugged both of them and they all sat down.

“What’s this about? You sounded…not like you when you called.” The redhead said.

“The reason I called you is something else. I wanted to ask for your help with something.” she answered. “There’s something I need to tell Tony. I kinda- I don’t really know how to start.” She took a deep breath. “You know how I hate mysteries?”

They both nodded.

“When that data leak happened, or I guess a data flood would be a more apt description, anyway I encrypted as many legitimate SHIELD files as I could and saved copies of all the Hydra files. Didn’t really know why, my own curiosity I guess. Wanted to know how much they were responsible for. Anyway, I started looking through some of those after Deathstroke and- you ever start reading something and know its gonna change your life, in a bad way, but you read it anyway?”

“Felicity, what’s this about?” Tony asked.

She pulled two pieces of paper from her bag and handed one over to him. “I found this in a Hydra file.” Tony stared at the page confused.

“I don’t read Russian.”

“Oh, sorry, I meant to give you this one. The translation.” She handed him the other sheet. His eyes glanced over the words. It read:

                MISSION DATE: DECEMBER 16 1991

                -----------------------------------------------------------------

                MISSION: SUCCESSFUL.

                DECEASED: Stark, Howard (TARGET)

                ADDITIONAL CASUALTIES: Stark, Maria (POTENTIAL WITNESS)

               -----------------------------------------------------------------

It didn’t contain any other information except a signature at the bottom verifying the report had been filed.

Felicity spoke again. “I’ve starting looking into it. To see what else I can learn. Nothing so far, but there’s a lot of intel to wade through and I just started.”

“They- the accident wasn’t Dad’s fault.” Tony said, lost in thought. He’d spent 22 years angry at Howard. He snapped back to reality. “Don’t, uh, don’t worry about it. Finding out more. Unless you want to.”

“You sure?” Felicity wasn’t looking into this for herself. She was hoping finding out more would give Tony some closure on his parents’ deaths.

“Yeah. It doesn’t change anything. Car accident’s still a car accident.”

Both women bit back comments about how it wasn’t an accident and Hydra had sabotaged the car. Tony was still processing. He’d blamed Howard and hated him for years for being the reason they crashed and Maria died. Turns out it wasn’t his fault.

“Ok, well if you change your mind.” Felicity offered.

She then told Pepper why she wanted to talk to her. Felicity was going to completely and utterly destroy Isabel Rochev’s memory and Stellmoor International. Since they’d tried to steal Stark Tech during a joint venture a year earlier, she was hoping Pepper was on board. She agreed and together they hatched a plan to ruin the company even more than Isabel’s relationship with Slade already would.

She was about to leave the penthouse when she heard a rumble of thunder and a large, muscular blonde man landed on Tony’s deck. He rushed inside, calling out to Tony.

“Man of Iron, I had need for-“

“Point Break, we talked about this. You need to stop breaking my windows.” Tony said. “What is it?”

“My apologies. I wished to- I’m sorry, who are you?” Thor asked looking at Felicity.

“Felicity Smoak.” She answered. “And I was just leaving.”

“I am Thor, son of Odin.” He introduced himself. “I apologize for intruding.”

“It’s fine. Tony and I were done talking.” She then turned to Tony. “I’m gonna go say ‘hi’ to Bruce on my way out.” she walked into the elevator. As it was closing, she heard Thor speak again.

“Have I done something to offend her?”

“It wasn’t you.” Tony said. “She just- she found out some bad news. You didn’t do anything.”

“If you are certain.” Thor remarked before telling Tony what he was talking about when he arrived.

Felicity went downstairs and caught up with Bruce. She discovered that she liked talking about physics with the genius since Loki’s invasion. He was very easy to talk to, and like Tony, let her monologue for hours while trying to figure out why a program wasn’t working or a project was progressing slowly. Bruce didn’t say it, but he liked the fact Felicity didn’t treat him a certain way because of the Hulk. She acted like he was a normal person and didn’t go out of her way to make sure he didn’t get angry. She and Bruce were in the middle of arguing about chaos  theory when the doors to Bruce’s lab opened.

“Dr. Banner, I- this is a restricted area.” The person said addressing Felicity.

“I know. I’ve got the clearance to be here.”

“Really? I’ve never seen you here before.”

“Ok, and? Just because you haven’t seen me doesn’t mean I can’t be here. JARVIS wouldn’t have let me onto this floor, much less into the lab if I wasn’t allowed in.” Felicity said. “I’ll talk to you later, Bruce.”

She left the room. She could hear the other man ask Bruce who she was just as the door closed. The physicist told him she was a friend of his. Later that day, Tony called her to talk some more. He also teased her about making an impression on Thor.

“Thor seems nice, and I’m sorry if I seemed rude to him, I just- I wasn’t in the mood to meet your team today.”

“Understandable. I told him that much. Hope you know he’s been telling the others about you. They’re gonna wanna meet you too.”

“Of course they do.” Felicity said. “They’re gonna have to wait.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?  
> Who do you think she ran into in Bruce's lab?  
> \--------------------------------------  
> Something that bugged me in Civil War (among other things) was that it took two years after the Hydra dump for anyone to find out about Hydra's involvement with the Starks' accident. Nothing about that information was something Zemo alone could've found. (He only needed Bucky to find the tape, Hydra kept records so there was other evidence). So, rather than think no on found anything for 2 years, Felicity found something linking Hydra to Howard's death, but that's all Tony's interested in learning. (To be clear, Tony & Felicity both think Hydra just sabotaged the car. They don't have any suspicion of anything else going on)


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity makes her move. Oliver makes a move. The Stark siblings are, well, siblings.

**Starling City- October 2014**

Oliver was waiting outside his old office for the board meeting to begin. Today was the day the board was set to vote on who would take over the company. Even though Oliver knew Felicity was the other owner, the board hadn’t been informed or discovered the truth yet. Her intention was to keep the attention off herself for a few months, giving herself enough time to develop a business plan they couldn’t say no to. As he owned 45% of QC still, Oliver was expected to be at the meeting. His mood instantly changed when the chairman of the board announced there was another bidder for the company. He tried to call Felicity, but she didn’t pick up. Oliver then met the other bidder, Ray Palmer. To give Felicity some more time, Oliver stood and made a speech about how important the company was to him and how he wanted to ensure it was put into the best possible hands. He took a seat and Ray stood to say his piece.

Before Ray could begin, however, someone else came into the room. It was the head of QC’s legal department. “Sorry for the intrusion, but this meeting cannot continue.”

“Why not?”

“Well, to put it quite simply, you’re attempting to sell a company that isn’t yours to sell. Mr. Queen owns 45% of the company’s stock. I just became aware that someone else owns the remaining 55%. A single individual. And they don’t want to sell.”

“Who?”

“That would be me.” Felicity said walking into the room with Matt and Foggy behind her.

“I’m sorry-“

“Please explain, Ms. Smoak.”

“It’s Doctor, actually.” She said.

“Our client, Dr. Smoak, bought 10% of the stock last year. Following Ms. Rochev’s death, she purchased the other 45%.” Matt explained.

“No.” Ray interrupted. “30% was purchased by Helix Dynamics and the remainder was bought by Tony Stark.” He’d looked heavily into who the stockholders were.

“That’s correct, except I own Helix Dynamics and Tony signed that last 15% over to me.” Felicity said. she then turned to the lawyers. “Matty, Foggy, I think I got it from here.” They left and she soon found herself facing a confused board, a calmer Oliver, and a surprisingly angry Ray. “As there’s now no point in continuing what you were just discussing, I suppose the meeting is adjourned.” Everyone except Oliver left.

“Thank you.” he told her. “I know you were nervous about telling the board but-“

“I should be thanking you. You could’ve dug your feet in months ago, talked me into giving you QC back. I would’ve done it. It was your family’s company after all.”

“Nah. My father built it, my mother and step-father helped run it, but I never felt like I belonged here. You told me why you didn’t wanna join the family business, but you can’t lie that you’re good at it.”

“Of course, I am. I’m a Stark. And SI’s never felt like something that should’ve been mine.” She sighed. “Now, we both win. QC’s in good hands, I may change the name though, and you aren’t obligated to be keep a job you hated.”

“How does your brother feel? Knowing you’re his competition now?”

“We aren’t seeing it that way. Stark Industries and Queen Consolidated are only direct competitors in a few fields. And I can see a lot of joint ventures and partnerships in the future.” She said. “Besides, Tony’s ecstatic. When I told him I started Helix, his exact words were ‘I hope, when you rip SI to shreds, you still hire me and Pepper’. He’s confident I’ll be able to build something way better than Howard ever could.”

This explained why Tony had never fought very hard to get Felicity to work for SI. “He’s right. And Matty?” It hadn’t escaped him that Felicity seemed to be very familiar with the blind attorney.

“He’s a friend. I met him in college. Well, he was in law school but I was in college. I was actually his first client. I asked him for help keeping QC away from another Isabel. This was the easiest way to do it. I heard rumors Palmer wanted QC, and it made me suspicious. I mean, it’s the first company he’s shown interest in buying, ever. Why now? Why Queen Consolidated and not Intel? He wants this specific company for something.”

“Why did you have Tony buy 15% of the stock if you had the money yourself?”

“I didn’t. He bought it because every now and then, he has to be the obnoxious older brother and do things to annoy me. I got him to sign it over in exchange for returning his first ever robot, which I’d kidnapped.” She took Dum-E and threatened to dismantle him if he didn’t sign the shares over to her. She never would’ve done it, but it was the gesture that counted. She shrugged and he shot her a confused look. “We’re a weird family, okay?”

They left the office and headed towards the foundry. She spent the whole trip trying to give him ideas about what to do now that he didn’t need to worry about QC. They about to enter the club when Oliver stopped.

“Would you like to go out to dinner with me?”

“I’m being serious here.”

“So am I.”

She took a step closer to him. “I don’t wanna read too much into this but you’re asking me out on a date. Like an actual date? Like a date date?”

“Sur- I mean, the implication being with dinner that you-.” he sputtered nervously.

“Usually, I’m the one talking in sentence fragments.”

“Would you like to go to dinner with me?”

“Yes.” She answered smiling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?
> 
> Tumblr: laxit21


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver and Felicity's date and the aftermath.

“Why are you so happy?” Tony asked when his video call to Felicity was picked up. He hadn’t seen his sister smile this widely since the day she got her doctorate.

“Because I’m excited!”

“Is that Lady Felicity?” Thor’s booming voice said from nearby. “Hello!”

“Hi, Thor.” Felicity called out. She then began to whisper. “Are the others there?”

“No, just me, Point Break and my favorite green bean.”

“Don’t call me that.” Bruce said from off-screen.

“Answer the question. Why are you so happy right now?” Tony said.

“Oliver asked me out on a date.”

“Queen asked you out?” he said. she nodded happily. “Do I need to call and threaten him?”

“No, don’t do that. Besides, every threat you can think of, he’s already heard.” She said knowingly. “I gotta go get ready. I’ll call you later.” She ended the call.

Bruce and Thor both watched Tony’s body language after the call ended. “Friend Stark, why do you seem agitated?”

“This isn’t gonna end well.” he said.

“Why not?”

“Because he- Queen- he’s an idiot. An idiot that’s gonna hurt her. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but its gonna happen.”

“Lady Felicity is in danger?” Thor asked angrily. He’d only spoken to Felicity once since meeting her, when she was on a video call with Bruce and he wandered into the lab, but he liked her. Then again, Thor liked most people.

“He doesn’t mean she’s in danger.” Bruce interjected. “He’s talking about emotional pain.”

“Oh.” Thor said.

 

Felicity and Oliver’s date hadn’t gone well. Dinner started off well enough, then someone shot a bazooka into the restaurant. Shortly after Felicity recovered from being knocked out, Lyla had gone into labor. After meeting Baby Girl Diggle, Felicity and Oliver walked out into the hallway.

“We need to talk.” he said.

“I don’t wanna talk, which I know, for me is unprecedented. But, as soon as we talk, its over.” she said coming to a stop.

“I’m so sorry. I thought that I could be me and the Arrow, but I can’t. Not now, maybe not ever.”

“Then say ‘never’. Stop…dangling maybes. Say it’s never going to work out between us, say you never loved me, say-”

“Felicity.” Oliver said before pulling her into a kiss. “Don’t ask me to say that I don’t love you.”

“I told you as soon as we talked, it would be over.” She said. “Because you love me, but you can’t be with me.” She walked a few feet away from him. “I’ve had plenty of men turn me down, but that takes the cake. I need some time. I’ll see you in a week.”

She walked out of the hospital, right past Ray Palmer who tried to stop and talk to her, and got into a cab. She told the driver to take her to the airport.

 

Back in New York, Tony was in his workshop when Pepper walked in. “Get up, take a shower and get some rest. Tomorrow’s not gonna be fun.”

“What do you-?”

“I don’t know what happened on Felicity’s date, but she called her pilot to get her plane prepped a few minutes ago. She’s on her way here.”

“That’s not good. Ask Happy to-“

“Pick her up at the airport. I know, I already did.” She said. “Felicity’s important to me too.”

“What do I do here? She’s coming here which means she clearly doesn’t want Donna to know but this- I’m not good with the whole emotions thing. How do I- its not like that idiot Cooper.”

“I don’t know either. We’ll see how she’s doing when she gets here.”

Several hours later, all Tony and Pepper knew was that Felicity had landed and Happy had picked her up. She kept ignoring their calls and probably took Happy’s phone so he couldn’t answer his own. JARVIS told them when the SUV arrived in the parking garage. They both sucked in a breath as the elevator dinged. They release it when they saw that it was only Bruce and Maria Hill.

“You can’t be here right now.” Tony said after they stepped out. “Unless the world is ending, you need to-“ The doors opened again. This time, Felicity stepped out. “Hey, how are you-?”

“Doing? How am I doing? I’m doing fine. Why wouldn’t I be doing fine?” She answered in a clearly not-fine tone. “You know, I only got a date with the guy I’ve been half in love with for two years. And it was going really well, it was great. Then, some asshole blew up the restaurant, which Oliver thought was his fault. Lyla and John had their baby, it’s a girl. And after I got to meet her, Oliver and I kissed. Then, he told me he loved me but he can’t be with me. Because that makes so much sense.” She continued to pace. “He loves me but he can’t be with me. Because no one who does what we do can have normal lives. He said he loves me, refused to say he didn’t or say it was never gonna work out. Because saying he loves me, but can’t be with me, is so much better than just letting me down easy so I can move on.” She finished ranting and began tearing up. “Why wouldn’t I be perfectly fine after that?”

Bruce looked livid, while Hill looked confused and guilty. She knew she shouldn’t be seeing this. Tony and Pepper both picked up on that and shot her a ‘can you be somewhere else’ look. She quietly made her way towards the stairwell.

“Felicity-“ Pepper started. She walked over and began hugging her.

“I mean, you know Cooper- he died. And Barry got struck by lightning. And Oliver’s completely fine and available and was sending out signals, but he can’t be with me. I mean- is there something wrong with me?” By now, she’d started to sob hysterically.

“No, Fizzy. There’s nothing wrong with you. He’s just-“ Tony knew what he wanted to say, but not how to say it. “He’s an idiot.”

“I want- I need-“ she said in between sobs.

“Yes, what do you need. Anything you need.” Pepper said rubbing circles on her back.

“Ice cream, and alcohol and sad movies so I don’t feel dumb for crying and happy movies so I stop crying and-“ she devolved into sobbing once again. Tony, wanting to do something, ordered JARVIS to get everything she needed.

The elevator opened once again, which Felicity didn’t hear, and Thor stepped out. He was about to announce his arrival when he heard sobbing. Concerned, he walked over to where Felicity and Pepper were.

“What happened? Who did this to you? Where are they?” The god of thunder asked.

“Point Break, you don’t- right now isn’t a good time.” Tony said. “You and Bruce should go downstairs.”

Thor was still confused, but got into the elevator with Bruce. He asked the scientist what had happened, but all Bruce told him was that she was upset about something.

After an hour, Felicity had moved past the crying stage and reached the ‘all men except Tony and at most two others suck’ phase. She mostly ranted about how much of a jerk Oliver, and a few others, were. She was pretty drunk at this point and didn’t make a lot of sense.

“-and he’s a stupid, idiot, jerkpants-face with his stupid, sexy abs and his dumb eyes that make me believe what he says.” She said.

The elevator opened again and someone stepped out into the penthouse already talking. “Stark, why aren’t you-?”

“I’m a little busy right now.”

“With wha-“

Felicity stood up, and in the loudest volume of her Loud Voice said, “Get out!” which sent Clint Barton running back into the elevator.

“Did you just Loud Voice Barton into leaving?” Tony asked.

“Yeah, I guess I did.” She said before letting out a small laugh. “That was mean. I’ll apologize later.”

"Don't. It was hilarious."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?  
> \-----------------------------  
> I love Olicity, but I wanted to write a pairing I haven't done before, hence having Oliver pull what he did at the hospital in 3x01. I also wanted to write Felicity reacting differently to his decision.
> 
> Felicity's 'why wouldn't i be fine' speech is based on real events.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver hears what Digg thinks about his declaration and Felicity meets some new people.

John and Roy exchanged looks before turning back to Oliver. the archer had just finished explaining what happened with Felicity and why she was taking a few days off from the team.

“So, let me get this straight.” Digg began. “You went on a date with Felicity, a woman you spent months pining over.”

“It wasn’t pining.”

“Yes, it was. You finally asked her out. She said yes. It was going very well. The new Count Vertigo tracked you down to the restaurant and blew it up. You saw this as a sign and broke it off with Felicity.”

“I had to. I can’t- my life’s too dangerous.”

“Her brother’s an Avengers, her life’s already dangerous.” he retorted. “You broke it off with her by saying you love her, but can’t be with her.”

“Exactly.”

“You know, in the two years I’ve known you, you’ve done and said a lot of dumb things, but that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard you say.”

“Yeah, it is.” Roy agreed.

“You love her but you can’t be with her. That’s a whole new level of messed up.”

“I don’t-“

“If you’d just said you couldn’t be with her, that’s one thing. Or if you’d taken the out she gave you and said you didn’t feel the same way, that would’ve been bad enough. But you wouldn’t even do that. No, you told her you felt the same way she did but followed it up with that not being enough, at least not now. Possibly not ever.”

“I had to keep her safe!”

“So you keep her safe by pulling the same crap you did a year ago and stringing her along? That’s not only unfair to her, its insulting. She knows what she wants, stop treating her like she doesn’t.”

“She almost died because of me.”

“No, she almost died because of the new Count.”

“It’s better this way.”

“Sure, but what happens if she decides she doesn’t wanna wait for you anymore?” 

* * *

 

**New York**

Felicity woke up to something poking her repeatedly in the cheek. She rolled over onto her back before letting out a loud groan. "What did I- what's that?"

"The robot you built last night. You named him Pokie, the Poking Robot." Tony said as he sipped his coffee. "For someone you drank as much as you did, you don't look terrible."

"Thanks. You let me build a robot when I was that drunk?"

"I tried to stop you, but your response was that you're "Felicity Fucking Smoak-Stark" and know what you're doing." He shrugged. "It seemed smarter to let you do that than to let you hack the government again."

"Yeah, you're probably right. Still, I did a good job building him, considering how drunk I was."

“Well, I hate to admit it, but its possible you might be a little better at programming than I am. Possibly.” He said.

“Did it hurt you to say that?” she teased.  
  
After Felicity got some coffee and scrambled eggs into her stomach, the elevator opened and a group of people stepped out.   
"You sure you're up for this?" Tony asked Felicity as they walked over.  
"I already know two of them and screamed at a third, so yeah." Meeting the Avengers now was fine with her.  
"Still really proud of that moment." He said.

“Lady Felicity!” Thor’s voice boomed as soon as he saw her. “You seem to be in better spirits.”

“I am. Sorry about- you know. You too, Bruce.”

“No need to apologize. I’m the last person to judge other people’s emotions.” Banner said. “Glad you seem better.”

“I would still like to offer my assistance with whoever caused you to feel that way. If you need it.” Thor said.

“Thanks, but I’m good.” His offer was sweet though. Tony was the only person who offered to threaten someone for her before.

“How come they get ‘hi’ and ‘I’m sorry’ but I got the demon voice?” Clint wondered.

“You know her?” Natasha and Steve both asked.

“I was emotional and drunk, I don’t know you, and you reminded me of someone I was pissed at.” Felicity responded. “I’d apologize but you should’ve read the room.”

“Who are you?” Clint asked.

“Right, sorry. My name’s Felicity Smoak-Stark. I already know who you are.”

“Smoak-Stark?” Natasha said.

“Yeah, that’s kinda what happens when-.”

“Ok, so you’re married to her and you’re dating Pepper?” Clint asked Tony.

“Oh my god, ew! What is wrong with you?” Felicity yelled. “He’s not my husband, you idiot, he’s my brother. Yuck. I need to go vomit.”

“You have a sister?”

“Well, technically I’m his half-sister, but yeah.” She said. “Same dad, different moms.”

“Nice to meet you, Ms. Smoak-Stark.” Steve said, wanting to relieve the tension.

“That’s Dr. Smoak to you, Captain Spangles.” Tony said.

“Ignore him, call me Felicity.” she said. Then, she noticed she was missing something and turned to Tony. “Do you know where my phone went?”

“You turned it off because you didn’t want the big, dumb idiot, your words, to call you.” Tony said.

“It is in between the couch cushions.” JARVIS said. “You have several calls from him, Mr. Diggle, Mr. Murdock and Dr. Palmer.”

“Great. Like the first one wasn’t bad enough.” She said as she picked up her phone. “It was nice meeting all of you, but I’ve gotta go handle a few things.”

She decided to call Matt first. He probably wanted to tell her something work related which wouldn’t take long or make her angry. She then called Digg and told him she was okay but needed a few days. She held off on calling Oliver or Ray, for different but obvious reasons. Instead, she called Star Labs to see how Caitlin, Cisco and a now awake Barry were doing. She called Sara as well and they talked for a while.

When Felicity left the penthouse, the Avengers turned to Tony for answers. “What? She needed some time away, so she came to visit me.”

“We just….we didn’t know you had a sister.”

“Most people don’t, she likes her privacy. She also- she’s got her own stuff going on.” Tony wasn’t going to tell the Avengers about Felicity working with the Arrow, he decided it was her secret to tell if and when she wanted to. They discussed news Clint had gotten last night, which was why he went to talk to Tony, and then the group split up.

“Is she really okay?” Bruce asked.

“She says she is and she’s pretending to be.” He responded just as she came back upstairs.

“Hey Thor?” Felicity asked.

“Yes?”

“Have you ever had a real New York bagel?” She needed to get out of the tower for a little bit and didn’t want to go with Tony, because of the press, and didn’t want to bother Bruce, so Thor was a good choice.

“I don’t believe so.”

“Come on.” She said, nodding towards the elevator. “You’ve really been missing out.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity and Thor talk, Felicity and Tony do Science, and the Tower gets a visitor

“May I ask, what is the difference between a bagel and a ‘real New York’ bagel?” Thor asked Felicity as they got out of the elevator and headed out of the tower.

“I can’t really explain it, it’s something you need to experience. Let’s just say those so-called bagels they sell in grocery stores don’t deserve to go by that name.” she said. “And my mom once told me there’s never been a sadness that breakfast food can’t fix. Or was that Ron Swanson? Either way, it’s true.”

“This Ron Swanson sounds like a wise friend.”

“Oh, he’s not- he’s a character on a television show called Parks and Recreation. When we get back, I’m sure JARVIS could find clips of it for you.” she explained. “The deli’s about a block up from here.”

They spent the rest of the walk in a comfortable silence. The deli wasn’t very busy when they arrived, so they got in line, ordered and waited for their number to be called. Thor ended up ordering the same thing as Felicity because he didn’t know what else to get and didn’t think to ask for any recommendations.

“I hope I didn’t mess up your plans for the day by asking you to come with me.”

“I had no plans for the day.” He shrugged. “Save what Captain Rogers calls ‘Team Bonding Night’ this evening.”

“You guys have team bonding nights?”

“Occasionally. Usually, we watch movies that your brother insists ‘everyone needs to see’.  I found some of them rather enjoyable.”

“Which ones?”

This led to a conversation about what kinds of movies Thor liked and Felicity giving him some recommendations. Their conversation wrapped up just as their number was called. They sat at a table in the corner and began to eat.

“You were right. I didn’t know what I was missing.” Thor admitted after a few bites. “What is this called again?”

“Nova lox on a sesame bagel. It’s salmon, tomato, onions, capers and cream cheese.” She answered. “So, you like it?”

“Yes.” He took another bite. “May I ask why you were so upset last night?”

“I- it’s complicated and I’m not quite ready to talk about it.” she said. “I forgot to ask, how’s Jane?” she realized it was kind of rude not to have asked earlier about how Thor’s girlfriend was doing.

“It’s fine. We are no longer together, but according to a mutual friend of ours, she’s doing well.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t meant to-“

“You couldn’t have known, and it was mutual.” He assured her. “We wanted different things, and after what happened with the convergence-.”

“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

“No, it’s okay. I found it difficult to reconnect with Jane while also mourning both my mother and my brother. She was dealing with her own regrets and emotions around what happened. We both realized it wasn’t working and we shouldn’t try to force things.”

“I- I didn’t know. About your mother or Loki, I’m sorry for your loss.” She said. “I guess I should tell you my situation. Only seems fair. I had feelings for this guy for a few years. He did something that really hurt my feelings. That made me angry and upset, which is why I flew to New York to have a meltdown on Tony’s couch. I didn’t want to have to see him for a few days.”

“That’s understandable.” Thor said. He was angry, but didn’t show it. Felicity was a nice person, he liked Felicity. He didn’t like seeing her upset or hearing someone had hurt her feelings. She had this way of making everything seem better whenever he talked to her.

“Uh, Thor?” Felicity said looking out the window. “The forecast didn’t call for rain.” A loud boom of thunder came as she spoke. “Guess you really are the god of thunder.”

“My apologies. I’m angry with what the man did to upset you.” he said. “Why would I claim to be the god of thunder if I wasn’t?”

“I don’t know. You gotta admit, true or false, its one hell of a title.”

“Yes, it is.”

Felicity saw something out of the corner of her eye. She looked over to where she saw two teenagers with cellphones aimed at them. “We should go. I’m sure the staff would appreciate us not hogging the table all day.”

“Ok. Thank you for the suggestion. It was delicious.”

“No problem. I love introducing people to good food.”

* * *

 

**Starling**

“Uh oh.” Roy said as he glanced down at his phone. A moment ago, Thea had texted him. It was a screenshot of a post someone had put on Instagram. The photo was blurry, but you could clearly see Felicity talking with a muscular blonde man. Thea had sent it with the message ‘SHE KNOWS THOR AND YOU DIDN’T TELL ME?!’

“Uh oh, what?” Oliver asked grabbing his attention.

“What- I- nothing. it’s nothing.”

He stared at him for a moment before walking away.

“Ok, what is it?” Digg said once Oliver was far enough away. Roy handed him the phone. “Ok, so she knows him. Given that her brother’s Iron Man, it isn’t that surprising.”

“Thea seems to think they look….very friendly.” Roy said.

“As exciting as Thea’s opinion on Felicity’s friendship with Thor is, I’m gonna go back to cleaning my guns now.” He didn’t get paid enough to deal with this nonsense.

* * *

 

**New York**

Felicity and Thor went their separate ways when they got back to the Tower. She had a lot of boring, legal paperwork to fill out in regards to taking over QC and Steve asked for Thor’s help in the gym. He needed a spotter and Thor was the best non-Hulk option in the building. Once Felicity was done, she sort of just wandered until she found herself near Tony’s workshop. He was bent over the table focused on something.

“What’re you making this time?” she asked causing him to jump in surprise and let out a yelp. “Sorry, thought JARVIS might’ve warned you I was on the way.”

“I did inform him.”

“Yeah, he said it, but I was ‘in the zone’ and ignored him.” He admitted.

“Been there, done that. Poor Roy got a spoonful of salsa thrown in his face last time.”

“You threw salsa at someone?”

“I didn’t throw it at him. I was eating my food, he startled me, I thought I was being attacked, so I jumped and the salsa went flying. Some of it landed on his face and a little bit got in his eye.” She defended. “He was fine. What are you making?”

“A sonic device for the suit. When you told me about your friend Sara, it gave me an idea. The suit doesn’t have a lot of non-lethal weapons built into it. I figured having something like Sara’s sonic device, which can disorient or subdue most assailants, would be a useful improvement.”

“It definitely would be, and it makes sense. Want some help? I didn’t build Sara’s device, but I know a little bit about how she did it and how it works.” Felicity knew he’d say yes. Building cool tech things was a huge part of their relationship.

“Sure. Pull up a stool and let’s science.”

“Science isn’t a verb.” She reminded him.

“You’re no fun.”

They developed a prototype and were about to start testing it when Pepper dragged them both upstairs for dinner.

“I know, you want to do science, but you’ve been in that workshop for hours and haven’t eaten since breakfast. Besides, you have that Avenger bonding night and if I didn’t grab you, Natasha or Steve would’ve.”

“Fair enough.” Tony conceded. “You sticking around for that, Fliss?”

“Not an Avenger.”

“Well, I say you’re an honorary Avenger and my name’s on the building so-”

“You realize my name’s also on the building, right? So, I can just say the opposite of what you say and its just as valid if that’s the only reason you have.” She said as the elevator reached the top floor.

“Ok, fine, Spock. If you wanna be all logical about it.”

“Calling me Spock isn’t as big an insult as you seem to think. He’s the science officer. I like science, it’s a compliment.”

“What’s a Spock and what are they arguing about?” Steve leaned over and asked Natasha.

“A character from Star Trek and I don’t know, its probably some inside joke, sibling thing.”

Their fight died down and the team bonding began. They wound up watching 2001: A Space Odyssey since it was Felicity’s favorite movie and Bruce and Tony both backed up her suggestion. Halfway through, they paused the movie because they’d run out of snacks. Clint, Nat and Steve went into the kitchen to grab more. Felicity got a phone call and went into the stairwell to answer it. it was Donna. When she came back out, most of the Avengers were in a fighting stance facing someone standing in front of the patio door. From where Felicity was standing, she couldn’t see the person at all.

“I’ll ask again, who sent you?” Steve asked. “Why are you here?”

“To see a friend.” A digitally altered voice said.

“Sara?” Felicity asked, pushing past Clint. “What the hell?”

“Hey.” She waved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara and Felicity talk about a variety of subjects, including a certain archer and a Norse god.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter doesn't have a ton of plot but it does have lots of Sara and Felicity being friends.

“Sara?” Felicity asked, pushing past Clint. “What the hell?”

“Hey.” She waved. Before she could do anything else, Felicity launched herself at her for a hug.

“You know her?” Someone asked from behind Felicity.

“Yeah, she’s a friend from Starling.” she answered. “How did you even get up here?” Stark Tower was 67 stories and JARVIS would’ve informed them if someone was climbing the side of the building.

“I’d tell you but I was promised to secrecy.” Sara answered. Felicity knew that meant one of two things: she’d learned it on the island or more likely, it was part of her League training.

“You still haven’t told us why you’re here.”

“Yes, I did. I’m here to visit Felicity, Mr.- who are you?”

“Barton, Clint Barton.”

“Right, Back-up Arrow.”

“Back-up Arrow? Back-up Arrow?!” Clint said, feeling insulted. “I was first and-“ Tony and Felicity both began to crack up at his reaction.  Natasha was trying to hide a smile as well. “It’s not funny!”

“It kinda is. Flissy, your friend is awesome.” Tony said before turning to Sara. “That was good, I like you.”

“Thanks. Flissy is pretty awesome too.”

“Please don’t call me that.”

“It’s such a cute nickname though.” Sara teased. “Fine, I’ll stop. I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“Why wouldn’t I be okay?”

“Well, you sounded weird on the phone. Then, I called Ollie who was his usual one-worded self. I ended up calling Digg and he gave me the whole story.”

“So you came to check on me?”

“Yeah, and to report back how you’re doing.” She admitted. “How are you doing? The whole thing with Ollie must’ve-“

Thor, Tony and Bruce were the only ones who knew what had happened and Felicity didn’t want to talk about it with the other Avengers. They were Tony’s teammates and she knew they were good people, but she didn’t feel comfortable sharing that kind of stuff with people she didn’t know. She led Sara downstairs so they could talk in private.

“He made his choice and I don’t think he’s gonna change his mind and I just couldn’t be around him right now.”

“You mean because he’s an idiot. An idiot who isn’t aware that he can’t make unilateral decisions for people. An emotionally damaged idiot. Still, this whole push-and-pull act had to mess with you.”

“it did, but- I can’t keep doing this. Wait for him to change his mind, hope he sees not everything’s his fault. I deserved better than that.”

“Yeah, you do but that isn’t gonna make it hurt any less.” Sara said. “Do you want me to kick his ass next time I’m in Starling?”

“You have to get in line behind Tony and Thor.”

“Your brother makes sense, but Thor?”

“He’s a friend.”

“Yes, well your ‘friend’ seems to care a lot about you. Looked ready to fight me when you tackled me for that hug.”

“He’s just- he knows a little bit about what happened and doesn’t want me to get hurt.”

“If you say so.” Sara saw the way Thor looked at Felicity and it was a little more than just friendship he had in mind. She deserved to have someone, and if that someone happened to be Thor, then so be it. Sara didn't care as long as her friend was happy. “When I mentioned Oliver, both he and Dr. Banner looked livid.”

“Yeah, well, after Oliver’s ‘I love you but I can’t be with you’ speech, I immediately came to see Tony. And had a meltdown on his couch which Thor and Bruce both saw. They might be worried I’m gonna start spiraling or something, given the family tree. I did get pretty drunk after I got here.”

“You finally got a date with someone you cared about, it ended in disaster and then he gave you a bullshit excuse about why it wouldn’t work out.” Sara said. “All things considered, you getting drunk on one occasion makes sense.”

“I built a robot while I was drunk. All he does is poke people, but he came out pretty good considering.I named him Pokie.”

“Felicity Smoak, only you would get drunk and build a robot. You’re such an adorable nerd.”

“And proud of it.” she said. “Wait, we’ve only talked about me. How are things with you? How’s Nyssa? Wait, should I not have asked that?”

“It’s okay. League business is, well, League business. Ra’s seems to be tolerating my dislike of killing for now, so I’m mostly doing intelligence gathering. I don’t know how long it’ll last, but I’ll enjoy it for now. I think its more Nyssa’s doing than anything else. Nyssa’s good, she says hi. Wants me to extend the same ‘I’ll hurt Oliver for you’ offer that I did.”

“She does?”

“You earned her respect, and the respect of the assassins with her, during the siege with both how you handled Slade and what you were willing to do to stop him. it showed conviction she wasn’t sure the team had. She also thought meeting you was very amusing.”

“Yeah, I’m awkward, laugh it up. Tell my second favorite League member I say hi back and appreciate the offer but I don’t need her to do that.”

“Nyssa’s your second favorite?”

 “Please, you know you’re my favorite. Everybody knows.” The room fell silent for several moments. “So, are you like on vacation right now? Does the League have vacations days?”

“No, it doesn’t. I’m not on an assignment and they’re aware that I’m in New York so until they need me for something, they don’t care that I’m not in Nanda Parbat.” she explained. “I need to admit something. I didn’t just come here to see if you were okay, I could’ve called or Skyped for that. I wanted to give you a heads up, just in case.”

“I figured but I didn’t wanna push. In case of what?”

“They’ve been looking into Malcolm Merlyn’s death. Ra’s is kinda pissed he died before the League could punish him for breaking their code. They aren’t very technological, so if they find something tech-related that leads them to answers-“

“They might come to me for help, got it.”

“It’s unlikely, very unlikely. Merlyn went off the grid because he knew what you could do. I don’t think anything they find will be up your alley but it’s a possibility.” Sara admitted. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it. You’re a member of the League, John’s ex-wife runs a top-secret government agency, my ex-boss is a vigilante. My brother’s Iron Man. I’m friends with the Hulk, the god of thunder and I almost dated the Flash. This is normal for me.” she shrugged. “Let’s go back upstairs. You came in the middle of movie night and you’re welcome to stay.”

“Oh, what movie?” One thing Sara liked most about Felicity was that she made her feel normal and treated her like a normal person. She liked having someone who didn’t know her before the island and saw her as Sara first, and the Canary second. “Please don’t say Cast Away.”

“Nope, 2001: A Space Odyssey.” She answered as they walked upstairs.

“Like I said, nerd.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts?


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver gets a wake-up call and the Avengers get to know Felicity a little better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has almost no plot, but I don't care.

**Starling City**

Oliver was in the foundry, trying to get one of Felicity’s programs to work, when his phone buzzed. He checked it to see he had a text from Sara. The message was short, just the words ‘wow, you’re dumb’. He texted back a question mark, looking for an explanation. There was more than one thing that message could be referring to. instead of getting a response, she called him.

“What?”

“What you did was dumb, and you know exactly what I’m talking about. You think you don’t deserve to be happy so you pushed her away. Again.”

“It’s not that simple.”

“Yes, it is. You either want to be with her or you don’t. You’ve made it clear that you don’t. And I don’t know why because she’s awesome. Hell, if she was into girls, I would’ve asked her out months ago, but sadly, she’s not as far as I know.”

“What’s your point?” He was miserable enough with her away and angry at him over the last few days. He didn’t need Sara to tell him how stupid his actions were.

“My point is you’ve made your stance clear and you might not like how that changes things.” Sara said. “She wanted to be happy with you, but you aren’t willing to take the risk, so she’s gonna be happy with someone else.”

“Is there someone else?” he asked jealously.

“Not yet.” Sara said before hanging up the phone.

* * *

 

**New York**

“Did you tell your dad I said ‘hi’?” Felicity asked Sara after she came back into the room. When they got back up to the penthouse, Sara had mentioned she was supposed to call her dad but forgot and went to do it.

“Yeah, he says ‘hi’ back.” Sara lied. “After he stopped venting about…you know.”

“Ah, yes. Grumpypants Arrow.”

“Oh, so you don’t know the Arrow, you _know_ him.” Clint said.

“Yeah,” she turned to Tony, “wait, you didn’t tell them?”

“Wasn’t my secret to tell. Then there’s that whole ‘we’re on the same side’ argument. On top of that, he’s your friend, so-”

“You’re friends with the Arrow? You shouldn’t- he’s a killer.” Steve interjected.

“Not to be rude, but so are a few people in this room. That doesn’t automatically make them bad people. Shades of grey.”

“There’s a lot you don’t know about him and his situation.” Sara said. She was angry at Oliver on Felicity’s behalf, but he was still important to her. She thought it was very naïve that Captain America, a soldier, viewed things through such a narrow lens. “I thought it was movie night. Did you cancel it while we were downstairs or something?”

“She’s right. We should get back to the movie.” Natasha said.

They watched the rest of the movie in relative silence. Everyone sensed the obvious tension and just wanted it to go away. When the movie was over, everyone except Bruce lingered around the penthouse.

“Felicity, may I ask you a question?” Thor asked.

“Sure.”

“Why did he choose the name The Arrow? I know he is an archer, but the name seems….unoriginal.”

“He liked it better than being called ‘The Hood’. It was also- the name change marked a change in his way of doing things, which he wanted to commemorate.” She answered shrugging. “And trust me, he’s not great at coming up with things on the fly.” She remembered all the lame excuses he came up with for needing her help. They might’ve been creative, but it wasn’t hard to see through them.

“How long have you been acquainted with him?”

“For about a year and a half.” She answered. She might’ve met Oliver a little less than two years ago, but she counted finding him bleeding in her car as the start of their friendship.

“Hey, Smoak. Answer a question for me.” Clint said from across the room. “Who’s better, me or him?”

“Him.” Sara, Tony and Felicity said in unison. They didn’t know if Oliver was really better, but it was fun to rile Clint up.

“Et tu, Tony?”

“What? He’s got more pizzazz.  Presentation counts.”

 “Presentation? I’ll show you presentation.” Clint grumbled. “Let’s go downstairs and-“

“Nope. Tower Rule: no projectiles can be used after 11pm unless its an emergency.” Felicity said.

“You can’t just make up rules.”

“My name’s on the side of the building, yes I can.”

“Like Bossy Felicity.” Sara remarked. “Speaking of, are you gonna rename QC?”

“Not sure yet. I’d need to talk to Matt and I gotta deal with Palmer first.”

“Ray Palmer? What’s he want?”

“I did some digging. He wanted to buy QC so he could have access to the OMAC specs. Pretty sure he wants to build it. He’s moved on from trying to buy QC to asking me to sell the plans to him. I don’t know what is plan is after that fails.”

“Well, at least we know why a man who makes smart watches wanted to buy a multibillion-dollar company.” Tony remarked. “And apparently originality is dead. You should rename the company though. Smoak Tech’s got a nice ring to it.” Tony remembered how, years ago, Felicity told everyone that would listen that one day she was going to start her own company. While she had Helix Dynamics, it didn’t have the same flair as Smoak Tech.

“It does, doesn’t it?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity and Oliver talk, she gives Bruce a bit of a pep-talk and new starts begin, or do they?

The next day, Felicity woke up and realized she should probably call Oliver. She was still really angry at him, but the longer she waited to talk to him, the worse it was going to be. He answered and after all of the ‘how are you? I’m ok. You?’ was out of the way, they fell into silence.

“I didn’t say it to hurt you.” he said after a long stretch of silence. “That wasn’t- I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“You didn’t want to, but you did anyway. I’m sure it seemed like the right thing, but it still hurt.”

“I know. Sara, John, Roy, even Nyssa have made it clear to me. No idea how she got my phone number.” He said. “I understand if- if you don’t want to come back.”

“Of course I’m coming back. My brother might be here, but my life’s in Starling. And the team needs me. I didn’t join because of you and I’m not quitting because of you either.”

“Good to know.” Oliver said. The conversation died off and they hung up.

“So, how did it go?” Sara asked.

“Well, you didn’t hear my Loud Voice and I’m not hacking into anything to make his life miserable, so-“

“It went that well? And we both know Ollie makes himself miserable enough as is.”

“I’m pretty sure he invented a gloom arrow that he shot himself with to be like this.” she joked. It was her only explanation of why Oliver seemed to always be so ‘doom and gloom’ about everything. “Also, apparently Nyssa called and yelled at him.” she gave Sara a pointed look.

“Ok, yes. I gave her his number. It was either that or let her go to Starling to confront him. Last time I checked, she can’t kill him through the phone.”

“Actually, you can.”

“You, Felicity Smoak, tech goddess can. Nyssa, who didn’t use a computer until she was almost 20, can’t.”

“That’s a fair point.” She admitted. Somewhat recently, she’d decided not to be so modest about her skills. Felicity was good with technology. She knew she was good. It was time for her to embrace it rather than downplay her intelligence and abilities.

Sara dragged Felicity downstairs so she could teach her some more self-defense. Before things got bad with Slade, she’d started to teach her some of the basics when they had time. When a crazy man with superhuman strength became a threat to thousands of people, they had to put those lessons on hold.

“You’ve been practicing.”

“When he doesn’t have Mirakuru in his system, Roy’s not a bad training buddy. And he was the only one who agreed to help me when I asked.”

“John and Ollie said no?”

“Yeah. Well, John recommended taking a normal self-defense class instead of him teaching me because he’s not a tiny blonde woman. Oliver didn’t get why I thought I needed it.”

Sara didn’t comment and went back to teaching Felicity a new move. About an hour into the lesson, Steve and Thor came into the room.

“Are we interrupting?” Steve asked. “Sorry, its just- normally the gym is empty during this time.”

“Oh, I didn’t really know that and-“

“How are you today, Felicity?” Thor asked.

“I’m good. You?”

“No complaints.”

“I’m fine too, if anyone cares.” Sara cut in from where she was standing. “I think that’s enough Wing Chun for today.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right. I’m already kinda sore.” She turned back to the pair. “Have fun…fighting. Is that a weird thing to say? It sounds like a weird thing to say.”

“It could be worse. You once told Arrow, Arsenal and I to ‘have fun punching and hitting each other with sticks’.”

“That’s what you were doing, so I don’t regret the comment at all.” She shot back. “I guess I’ll see you guys later.”

 

Sara left to check-in with the League and call her dad to say hi. Felicity spent the next few hours in Bruce’s lab, helping him with his work. Since his accident, he’d stuck to mostly theoretical physics, but two heads were better than one and having someone to double and triple-check his work was always appreciated.

When they reached a lull in the conversation, Felicity worked up the courage to ask Bruce something. “So, I hate to ask this but I have this friend Cisco, and when he found out I knew you, he kinda-“

“He wants the Hu- the Other Guy’s autograph.” He finished for her.

“What? No. Sorry, I should’ve explained better. He’s an engineer at Star Labs. They’re still trying to work out exactly what went wrong with the particle accelerator. He was wondering if you’d look at what they gathered related to the explosion. They’ve asked other experts to look over what they have and come up short, but none of them are experts in this field of physics like you are. I told him I’d ask.”

He was a little in shock. Most people only cared about the Hulk, so he’d gotten used to people asking for Hulk-related things. “Sure. I can look it over.”

“You okay? You seem a little, I’d say green but that has the wrong connotation.”

“I’m not used to people wanting me and not the Other Guy.” He said quietly.

“You’re a world-renown scientist. You have seven PhDs and an M.D. How many does the Hulk have? None. He’s nice and all, but he’s not the only reason you’re important.”

Later that day, Felicity was in the penthouse, trying to decide what to eat when Thor walked up behind her.

“Felicity?”

“Yes?”

“I was wondering if-“ he said, nervously wringing his hands, “would you go to dinner with me?”

She opened her mouth to answer. The elevator doors opened, someone entered the room and announced, “we have a situation.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?
> 
> Please don't hate me for that ending.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An old face makes an appearance and Felicity gives Thor an answer.

“I was wondering if-“ Thor said, nervously wringing his hands, “would you go to dinner with me?”

Felicity opened her mouth to answer. The elevator doors opened, someone entered the room and announced, “we have a situation.”

The blonde pulled back and turned to see who had spoken. “Are you fracking kidding me?”

“Who are you?” the person asked.

“TONY!”

“What?” Tony asked as he stepped into the room.

“One-Eyed Waller is here.” she said pointing at Fury.

“What did you just call me? And who are you anyway?”

“What’s the commotion?” Steve asked as he, the other Avengers and Sara exited the elevator. “Director Fury.”

“I called you ‘One Eyed Waller’ because you’re a less effective, male version of Amanda Waller and you only have one eye. it seemed nicer than Discount Waller.” She answered. “Oh, and my name is Felicity Smoak-Stark. Tony’s little sister.”

“Stark doesn’t have a sister.”

“It’s okay that you didn’t know. it wouldn’t be the first time you didn’t know a huge important piece of information.” She said.

She didn’t trust Fury any more than she trusted Waller. Amanda was effective though. Her tactics were extreme but they worked. She ran a much tighter ship than Fury had and, for better or worse, it worked out better. Her secrets didn’t get out unless she wanted them to. Or someone like Team Arrow found them out. It’s why ARGUS was one of the only agencies world-wide Hydra was never able to infiltrate. It pained Felicity to admit it, but she had some respect for Waller because of that.

“Why are you here? Also, aren’t you supposed to be dead?”

“We have a situation.”

“Yeah, you’ve said that already. Wanna tell us what that situation is?” Tony said.

“I will, once I don’t have an audience.” Fury looked between Felicity and Sara.

“You know Tony’s gonna tell her whatever you say anyway and she’s gonna tell me, right? Cut out the middle man and spit it out.”

“After the incident in DC, the intelligence community created an interagency panel to sift through all the mess left behind.  The leaked documents were only half of it. Every SHIELD document since World War II had to be reread in case they were tampered with. Evidence logs, chain of custody-“

“You were infiltrated by Nazis and no one figured it out for 70 years. We know, get to the point.”

“Certain….artefacts from the invasion of New York appear to have gone missing.”

“Meaning?” Clint asked.

Tony and Felicity meanwhile knew what Fury wasn’t saying. “You lost it?!”

“Lost what?”

“The scepter. Loki’s scepter. SHIELD took it to study, and they lost it. Or I guess more accurately, one of the Hydra agents planted in SHIELD stole it.” Tony said.

Varying levels of shock and anger were on the faces of the Avengers. The fact that a weapon that powerful had been taken was surprising. That it took this long for anyone to notice was certainly concerning.

“I think you might wanna take back the comparison you made to Waller,” Sara remarked to Felicity, “it’s insulting to Waller.”

“You’re right.” She said. Fury looked ready to argue or demand to know why he was somehow worse than Waller. “What? ARGUS didn’t get their hands on some alien superweapon and then lose it.”

“I’ll get the tracking algorithm running.” Bruce said heading back towards the elevator.

“JARVIS is already searching through the data dump, trying to find a trail.”

“Let me guess, there are some SHIELD prisoners you want us to talk to.” Natasha said referring to herself and Clint.

“I can make a few calls.” Felicity suggested. “Whoever has it avoided SHIELD’s radar, but maybe they caught someone else’s attention.” ARGUS might’ve found something. Cisco might be willing to re-task a satellite and she knew Oliver had some friends abroad.

“A few old friends of mine might be able to help.” Sara said. She’d started referring to the League as ‘old friends’ of hers when she was around people who didn’t know about her being a member of the League of Assassins. Ra’s didn’t like technology very much, and saw most weaponry outside of swords as signs of weakness, but he enjoyed knowing things other people didn’t. He didn’t need or want the scepter, but knowing where it was or who had it stroked his ego.

“I think we have a pretty good handle on this.” Steve told Fury. “We’ll let you know what we find out.”

People began to leave to fulfill their respective tasks. Felicity realized she hadn’t given Thor an answer when he asked her out. She turned to him and spoke.

“My answer’s yes, by the way. I’ll have dinner with you.” she tried not to let her excitement show too much.

“I- great. Tomorrow?”

“It’s a date.” She said. “Wait, this is a date, right? I didn’t read it the wrong way or-?”

“Yes, it is a date.” He said smiling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?  
> \------------  
> For the record, I'm not saying Felicity likes Waller. In my mind, she looks at her and Fury and thinks 'wow, you both suck/are untrustworthy, but Waller did it better so I think she sucks slightly less'


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity has a date, some people are excited, others not so much.

After saying ‘yes’ to Thor asking her to dinner, Felicity rushed off to find Sara. Not including her disaster date with Oliver, she hadn’t had a date in a long time. And she’s never dated a Norse god before. What was she going to wear?

She found her after about ten minutes of searching right as the other blonde was ending a phone call.

“I kinda- I really need your help.” She said frantically.

“Why? What’s wrong? What happened?”

“Thor asked me to dinner and I said yes.” Sara began laughing. “Why is that funny?”

“A guy you like, and who clearly likes you, asked you out and that’s somehow a problem.”

“It’s not a problem, its just- the last date I had ended with the restaurant getting blown up. Before that, I hadn’t had a date since MIT. And those dates were mostly ‘hey, come to my dorm and we’ll, like, chill and stuff’. I don’t know what to wear. Or what we’re going to do.”

“Well, he said dinner, so I assume food’s somehow gonna be involved.” She joked. “As for what to wear, anything you wear will look great but I’d suggest red or blue.”

“Those are two very different colors.”

“But you look great in both. Especially red. Wear red.” Sara said.

“I don’t know where we’re going to dinner. I don’t wanna be overdressed.”

“You won’t be. He asked me where to take you earlier today if you said yes. I gave him some suggestions.”

“He did?”

“Yeah, when you were off being a mad scientist with Dr. Banner, I ran into him after I checked in with the League. He asked me what I thought, I told him.” She shrugged. “I’m one of your closest friends and the only other person he could ask was Tony.”

“Yeah, Tony’s response would’ve been along the lines of ‘take her to a convent’ even though it doesn’t make sense because I’m Jewish, but- I’m just surprised he asked for advice.”

“I don’t know if you’ve not noticed or you’re just in denial, but Thor really likes you. A lot. He wants to do things right.” Sara said. “And before you ask, no I won’t tell you where you’re going. It’s a surprise.”

“Not a big fan of surprises or mysteries.”

“I know, but trust me, you’ll like it.” she said. “Oh, and Nyssa hasn’t heard anything about the Scepter of Doom.”

“Tony calls it the Glowstick of Destiny, but your name is better fitting.”

“Not quite as catchy though.”

Sara wound up having to leave on League business later that night. She said her goodbyes and told Felicity she better call her as soon as the date was over.

The next morning, Felicity walked into the penthouse to see Tony glaring at Thor. Clearly, she’d arrived in the middle of an argument. Neither man noticed her arrival and her brother opened his mouth to rant. It was funny for Felicity to see, since Thor could’ve easily picked Tony up, mid tirade, and deposited him in the elevator. As angry as Tony seemed, Thor didn’t appear mad at all.

“You can’t date my sister!”

“Oh really? And why’s that?” she said from where she was standing. It immediately took the wind out of Tony’s sails.

“I- he- you-“ He knew what he wanted to say but he also knew his answers were only going to make her angry. He didn’t have anything against Thor, he just didn’t like the idea of him dating Felicity. it was a big brother thing.

“Because, you know, I’m an adult and can make my own choices. And he asked me to dinner and I accepted. And I don’t need you trying to protect me.”

“Yes, but-“

“But I don’t have a great track record? Yeah, that’s true, but its not fair to hold that against me or him.” She pointed out.

“Fizzy-“

“Thor, could you give us a minute?” She wanted to talk to Tony, without an audience. There were some long-standing issues they both had that were part of this argument and it was too early in her and Thor’s not-yet-a-relationship to tell him. “I’ll see you later.”

“Six-thirty?”

Six-thirty.” She promised with a smile before the god of thunder left. “You’re my brother and I love you, but you aren’t my father.”

“Believe me, I know.”

“I really like him, and he likes me. Why is him asking me out a problem?’

“I don’t like seeing you get hurt.”

“He’s not Cooper.”

“I know that.”

“And he’s not Oliver. Or the numerous women you’ve stupidly trusted in the past and regretted.”

“I know that too. That doesn’t mean you aren’t going to get hurt.”

“Why do you assume I’m going to get hurt? Do you distrust Thor that much or do you think I just have a bad taste in men?”

“No, its- you don’t do things by halves. When you have feelings for someone, they’re strong feelings. When someone hurts you, you’re devastated. And while I don’t feel your heartbreak, I usually have to watch it.”

“Sorry that my emotions bother you.”

“That’s not what I meant. I have to see you in pain, and I can’t do anything to help you because human emotion is the only thing I can’t science my way out of.”

“I get that, but I’m not going to give up on relationships just because I’ve failed in the past. We wouldn’t have lightbulbs if Edison gave up. You wouldn’t be Iron Man. JARVIS and ALEX wouldn’t exist if we gave up after a few failed attempts. I want to be happy, and Thor, he might be the person who makes me happy.”

He couldn’t really argue with that. He wanted Felicity to be happy. She was his sister, of course he did. He knew, though, that if things went wrong, if they didn’t work out, there’d be a big, ugly, messy situation that followed. 

* * *

 

**Starling City**

Oliver was in the foundry, fighting a training dummy when he heard the door at the top of the stairs open. He paused in his workout to see who it was. He heard light footsteps coming down the stairs and knew it wasn’t Roy or Digg.

“Felicity, you’re ba- Sara?”

“Yeah, sorry Ollie. Felicity was thinking about coming back with me today, but decided not to.”

“Wanted to spend more time with her brother, I’m guessing.”

“That, and she has a date.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?
> 
> The date will happen next chapter. I wanted to shed a little more light on Tony's attitude and Felicity's worries before we got to that.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity and Thor go on their date and Oliver hears something he doesn't want to.

“Yeah, sorry Ollie. Felicity was thinking about coming back with me today, but decided not to.” Sara said.

“Wanted to spend more time with her brother, I’m guessing.”

“That, and she has a date.” She said it, waiting for Oliver’s reaction.

“Date? Felicity has a date? Like a date?”

“Well, yes. A date, that’s why I used the word ‘date’. Why are you surprised?”

“I’m not surprised, well, I am. I didn’t expect-“ He didn’t want say it, but he didn’t expect Felicity to be dating so soon after what happened between them. “I’m happy she’s- with who? Matt? Someone at SI?”

“No. It’s with Thor.” Sara said plainly.

“Thor? As in Thor? Norse god of thunder?”

“Yeah, it’s the only Thor she knows. Well, the only Thor I’ve heard her mention.”

“I didn’t know she knew him.” He said casually.

“She knows all the Avengers. She met him, and the others, through her brother.”

“And they’re dating? Just like that?”

“Well, they’ve been friends for a few months. He finally worked up the nerve to ask her out.” she shrugged. “You rejected her. You don’t get to be jealous.”

“I’m not-“ How could he not be jealous? The woman he loved, the one he wanted but couldn’t be with, was dating a god. How was he supposed compete with that?

“Your face says otherwise.” She said. “You made your choice. Now you have to live with it.”

* * *

 

**New York**

Felicity was getting ready for her date while simultaneously trying to calm herself down. She was incredibly nervous about tonight. She liked Thor a lot and wanted everything to go well. She kept telling herself everything was going to be fine. No drug dealers were going to try and blow up the restaurant. No crazy men with swords. No conspiracies to destroy the city. Just dinner. Dinner would go well. it would be a nice, normal date. Even if it was with a Norse god.

“I can do this. I can so totally do this. My last date wasn’t bad, what happened afterwards was. Everything’s going to be fine.”

She was repeating this mantra when there was a knock on the door. She had her own floor in the tower, right below Tony and Pepper’s. It made things easier for everyone when she came to visit. She also hated staying in hotels or generic guest rooms, which Tony knew. She was just getting her shoes on and asked JARVIS who it was.

“Mr. Odinson.” The AI answered. “It seems he was nervous as well and decided to arrive early.”

“That’s good, right? I mean, that he’s nervous too. I hate being the only one. What do you think?”

“I don’t have enough experience in the matter to comment.”

Felicity rolled her eyes at JARVIS’s response and answered the door. Thor was standing there with a bouquet of flowers in his hand. He turned to face her when he heard the door open.

He stared, speechless for several seconds. “Good evening, Lady Felicity. You look beautiful.”

“You got me flowers?”

“Yes, Sara mentioned it was a common practice, especially on first dates.” he answered handing them to her. “I wasn’t sure what flowers you preferred, so I asked the florist for a variety.”

“They’re beautiful. Thank you.” She told him. She found a vase to put them in and grabbed her purse. “Shall we?” They left her floor and headed down to the lobby. Happy was waiting with one of Tony’s cars to drive them.

“Do you like Italian food?” Thor said.

“Of course I do. I mean, who doesn’t like Italian food. Well, I suppose people with certain dietary restrictions might not. Or those people who’ve never tried it. And- sorry, I babble sometimes.” She realized she was about to go off on a tangent and didn’t want to embarrass herself this early.

“You don’t need to apologize. I like listening to you speak.” He assured her. “There is a small Italian restaurant nearby that we’re going to.” They arrived at the restaurant soon after and were seated quickly.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been here.” she said, looking around. “Whenever I visit Tony, I try one or two new places, but I don’t think I’ve been here.”

“I’m glad. We get to have this new experience together.” he said with a small smile, which she returned.

“So, according to some not-so-secret SHIELD files, Asgard is a planetary body in another region of space.”

“It is, or at least, when I described Asgard to Son of Coul, that was the conclusion they arrived at.” Thor answered.

“Wait, so have you been to other planets? Which ones? What were they like?” Felicity wanted to play it cool, but she was a science nerd. Space had always fascinated her, and for years she claimed the worst day of her life was when she discovered her eyesight meant she couldn’t become an astronaut.

“I’ve been to many planets. My favorite, besides Asgard, is Vanaheim.”

“What’s it like?”

“Serene. The Vanir do not have large cities like Earth or Asgard so much of the planet’s covered in forests and meadows. The views there are breathtaking.”

“Yeah, I bet.” She said, trying to picture it.

“Earth is one of my favorite planets as well.” He liked Earth and didn’t want her to think he didn’t. “Everywhere I’ve visited on this planet, I’ve seen something new and found something unique.”

“I hope so, since you’re living here. But I already know about Earth, I don’t know as much about Asgard or the other planets. Please, tell me more.”

Thor spoke for a little while longer. He told her about his life before coming to earth, a few quests he’d been on, growing up in Asgard. It felt good to share his stories with her. “Enough about me. I’d like to know more about you.”

“What would you like to know?”

“Where’s your favorite place in the world?”

“There’s this tiny town in California called Kelna. It’s about an hour away from Coast City, right on the beach. My mom and I used to go there during the summer. Tony came with us a few times, when he didn’t have other commitments. I haven’t been in years but that’s my favorite place.”

They talked for a little while about Felicity’s family and she told a few stories about growing up with Tony as a brother. The waitress had just brought over the dessert menu when Thor asked another question.

“Can I ask how you met and became allies with the Arrow? Your brother made it seem like you didn’t want to be involved with that kind of thing.”

She’d been expecting the question all night, so it didn’t surprise her. “I didn’t, or at least, I thought I didn’t. He asked for my help a few times, I didn’t know he was the Arrow at the time, just someone with a few weird requests. I found out his identity when I found him injured in my car and he had to clue me in. The reason I joined his team in the first place was because someone I knew went missing and I needed help finding them. So, really it kinda just happened.”

“It’s been my experience that some of our greatest adventures happen that way.”

They had desert, paid and left. When they arrived back at the tower, Thor went up to Felicity’s floor. “I enjoyed tonight.”

“Me too.”

“Would you like to do this again?” He asked.

“Definitely.” She answered eagerly, then she remembered something. “Ugh, but I have to go back to Starling soon.”

“You are aware that I can fly, right?” He said. “I can come to Starling. In fact, I’d be happy to.”

“Ok, great. I mean, I knew that you can do that but I didn’t want to just assume you’d fly. It would be a little rude, don’t you think? To just assume you’d accommodate me but I wouldn’t at least offer to- I’m going off on a tangent, aren’t I?” she said, closing her eyes to collect herself. She stood on her tiptoes and leaned over towards Thor. She gave him a quick kiss before moving back down. “Thank you for an amazing night.”

He stopped her before she could walk away and kissed her. This kiss was longer and deeper than the one she gave him. When they broke apart, he spoke. “Good night, Felicity.”

She went inside and Thor went downstairs to his floor. Neither of them could wipe the dumb, happy smiles off their faces.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve asks for a favor and Tony has to admit something he doesn't want to.

Felicity and Thor went out on a lunch date the day after their first date. Felicity needed to go back to Starling soon, but wanted to spend as much time as possible with him until then. They didn’t do anything fancy this time, just walked down the street to a pizza place and got some pizza. There was nothing quite like authentic New York pizza in her opinion.

When they got back to the Tower, Felicity was heading to Bruce’s lab to talk to him when she ran, literally, into Steve Rogers. Since Steve was basically a walking pile of muscles, she fell down when they collided. He helped her up.

“Sorry, I didn’t see you there.” He said.

“It’s okay. I’m not saying this to make you feel better, but I run into stuff all the time.” She began to continue on her way.

“Wait, I was looking for you actually.”

This seemed weird to Felicity. She hadn’t talked to Steve ever since he found out she knew the Arrow. “Me? Why?”

“I kinda wanted to ask a favor. Tony said you’re very good with computers and findi-“

Felicity wasn’t sure how she felt about this. On one hand, Steve seemed like a pretty good guy. She was sure his favor wouldn’t be too difficult or demanding. On the other, he hadn’t really given her a reason to want to help him. She didn’t really know him; they weren’t exactly friends. Despite not knowing Oliver, he condemned his actions as the Arrow. She was also really pissed at him, and Natasha, about dumping all of SHIELD’s files online without stopping to think about the ramifications.

Before he could finish, Tony came down the hallway. “There you are! You know, Donna’s been calling me for the last hour and a half?”

“I’m gonna give you two a moment.” Steve said. He needed to ask Felicity for help, but didn’t want to ask in front of Tony. The engineer might volunteer to help and Steve didn’t want that.

Felicity nodded before turning back to her brother/ “Why’s she calling you? She didn’t even try to call me.”

“I think she thinks you won’t answer. She wanted to know if its true.”

“If what’s true?” she asked. She honestly had no idea what he was talking about. It was rare for Felicity to have no idea what’s going on.

“Someone took a picture of you and Point Break earlier today. You’re on every gossip site in the world right now.” Her brother explained. “And you know how she gets.”

“How excited are we talking?”

“I think I heard a glass shatter in the background from her yelling. Last time she was this excited was probably-”

“The day I got my acceptance letter from MIT.” Donna Smoak, in her own words, didn’t understand ‘all this tech mumbo-jumbo’ that Tony and Felicity talked about, but she was incredibly proud of her daughter. The day her genius daughter got that letter from MIT was the third best day of Donna’s life; the first was Felicity’s birth and the second was the day she graduated. “So, I should go call her.”

“Yeah.”

Felicity went to her floor and called Donna. Her mother, despite not needing to, was still working at the MGM Grand simply because she liked her job. She couldn’t argue with that logic. Her mom answered after just one ring and let out an excited shout.

“Mom. Mom? I need you to calm down, I can’t hear anything you’re saying.” She said.

“Is it true? Are you and Thor really-?”

“Yes, kinda. Our first date was last night. We had a second date today.”

“Oh, my god, baby! That’s so excited. I’m so happy for you!”

“Yeah, I got that.” She then noticed the time. “I can’t talk for much longer, I need to catch my flight back to Starling.”

“Can’t you just take the jet?”

“I’m going to, but I need to get back before a certain time. I’ve got CEO things I need to be rested and ready for.” They talked for a little while longer while she packed and Felicity told Donna she’d call her again after she landed in Starling. at the last second, Felicity remembered to bring Pokie, the Poking Robot with her. she was really proud of her drunk creation.

When it was time to go, Felicity went down to the lobby and found Tony and Thor waiting for her. Her brother looked slightly uncomfortable standing there. She guessed things were still a little tense between them after Tony’s whole ‘you can’t date my sister’ speech.

“You’re both coming to the airport with me?”

“We wished to see you off.” Thor answered.

“Yeah, I wanted to- could I talk to you for just a sec?” Tony asked her. She pulled him a few feet away, so they could talk. “I’m- I might’ve been- you were- so I was…not-right.”

“You mean wrong.” Felicity hadn’t heard Tony admit to being wrong in years. He would admit to miscalculating or ‘being unaware of certain variables’ but wouldn’t admit, at least to her, that he was wrong.

“Yes, I was- the ‘w’ word. I was wrong. There, I said it. And I’m sorry. You’re an adult and can make your own decisions.”

She hugged him and they headed back to where Thor was. The drive to the airport was too short in Thor and Felicity’s opinion, but they said their goodbyes and she got onto the jet.

“I miss her already.”

“You should. My sister’s awesome. It’s a family trait.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts?


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Arrow is reunited, Clint is helpful and bad news arrives in Starling.

Felicity landed in Starling and immediately headed over to the foundry. She needed to check in with the team and wanted to have a chance to talk with Oliver in person. There wasn’t a lot she still needed to say, but the few things that she did, she wanted to say as soon as possible and just get it over with.

She typed in the access code and walked down into the lair. Oliver, Digg and Roy were down there discussing the latest crime wave to hit Starling. All three heads turned towards her when they heard her footsteps. John and Roy both walked over to hug her.

“Uh, hi guys.” She said as soon as the hugging was over.

“Hey, Blondie.” Roy said. He and Felicity had gotten a lot closer in the last five months. Their relationship had grown from a simple friendship to a very close, almost brother-sister relationship.  He understood her reasons for taking some time away from the team, but missed her nonetheless. “Nice to have you back.”

“Nice to be back.” she said. “Hi, Oliver.”

“Hi, Felicity.” He hadn’t moved from his spot since she walked in. He wanted to hug her and welcome her back but he wasn’t sure if that would be okay with her. “How was New York?”

“Good. I got to spend some time with Tony, which is always fun, and a few of my others friends out there, like Dr. Banner. It was great, until Discount Waller walked in.”

“Discount Waller?” John asked.

“That’s what I call Nick Fury, former SHIELD director. Not dead, by the way. He’s the discount version because they both did shady things, but Amanda Waller was, at the very least, effective. As much as it pains me to say it.” She explained. “Anyway, a very powerful alien artifact went missing, thanks to Hydra, and he showed up wanting the Avengers to find it. So, we need to keep an eye out for it.”

“This artifact, how dangerous is it?”

“It’s the scepter Loki used during his failed invasion. It’s capable of manipulating people’s minds and controlling them in some cases.” She explained. “SHIELD doesn’t know when it went missing or who has it. Star Labs and ARGUS are already aware that its missing, and Sara’s gonna try to find out if the League knows anything. This item is as dangerous as a missing nuke, so its all hands on deck.”

“What do you need from us?” Oliver asked.

“Maybe reach out to your ‘old friend’ Anatoly in Russia, see if he might know something.”

“Anatoly isn’t Hydra.”

“I wasn’t saying that he was, but Hydra’s gone underground and the Bratva might be able to find out where. It’s worth a shot, so please call him and ask.” She explained. “Could I talk to Oliver alone for a minute?”

John and Roy shared a look before walking out of the foundry. “If you’re going to tell me about you and Thor, I already know. Sara told me and its been all over the news. Thea even called me to ask me if it was true.”

“That wasn’t why I wanted to talk. We’re all adults and I don’t have to explain my choices to you. I wanted to see how you were doing with everything.”

“Fine.”

“You’re always ‘fine’ so that doesn’t mean a whole lot. I want to make sure we don’t have the same problem we had after Barry was struck by lightning. To put it simply, you were kinda a dick when that happened. You’re my friend, and I care about you a lot, but I’m not going to feel bad or be made to be the villain because I’m choosing to be happy.” She said. “You rejected me, remember.”

“I didn’t reject-“

“Yes, you did. I’m not asking you to be 100% okay this very second with me dating someone, but you’re gonna need to get used to the idea. Do we have an understanding?” He nodded. “You can stop eavesdropping now!”

Roy and John came down the stairs with sheepish looks on their faces. “How did you-?”

“The computer dings when the door is opened. it didn’t ‘ding’ meaning no one opened the door, so you were just standing on the top step, listening. Next time, at least open it and pretend to leave.”

“What’s in the case?” Roy said, pointing to the large metal case Felicity had brought with her.

“A robot I built.” She said, opening up the case. She pulled Pokie out and set him on the floor. “I built him when I was in New York.”

“What does it do?” Oliver asked as the robot moved closer to him.

“You’ll see what he does in a second.” Felicity answered cryptically. Pokie rolled over to where Oliver was, extending his arm and began poking the archer in the leg. Repeatedly. “I named him Pokie, the Poking Robot.”

“Why is he only poking me?”

“I don’t know. He has rudimentary AI, so he must think you need to be poked.” She shrugged. “Now, tell me what’s been going on while I was gone.”

They briefly explained what the criminals of Starling had been up to over the last week.

On the outskirts of Starling, Cooper Seldon got out of his rental car and looked around. He never expected Felicity to wind up living in a city like this.

* * *

 

**New York**

“I thought you were the god of thunder, not the god of moping.” Clint said taking a seat next to Thor.

“I am the god of thunder. I just- I miss Felicity already.”

“So call her.” Clint said, shoving Chinese food into his mouth. “Just because she isn’t here doesn’t mean you can’t talk to her. JARVIS’ll do it.”

That thought hadn’t occurred to Thor and he left to call Felicity.

Downstairs, Natasha and Steve were in Steve’s room talking. “Did you ask her?”

“I didn’t get a chance to. I was about to broach the subject when Tony showed up. And now, she’s gone back home.”

“Then try again. Call her, or email her. Just say you want to talk. You need to either do that, or fess up to Tony.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cooper makes his move, its a very dumb move.

Cooper sat as the other members of Brother Eye discuss plans about how to fulfill their goal. He was only half listening, as his mind wandered to Felicity. The goth girl he’d known, the one he’d taken the fall for with the supervirus, was gone. She’d been replaced by some corporate Barbie sellout. When his time with the NSA was up, he considered inviting her to join Brother Eye. One quick Google search dashed those hopes when he learned she was working at Queen Consolidated, the type of company she used to want to bring to its knees.

The room went silent. Clearly, someone had asked him a question when he wasn’t paying attention. “What?”

“The woman we need, the one who’s gonna hack the Treasury Department, how do you plan on coercing her?”

The NSA taught him a few things. The best way to get to someone was through their loved ones. Felicity only had one person she cared about. “I’ll handle that. I need one of you to hack into Delta Airlines system though.”

Felicity was getting ready for work a few days later when she heard knock at the door. She opened it to find her mother standing there, jumping up and down.

“Mom, what are you doing here? please stop jumping.”

“I’m here for a visit. Didn’t you get my text?” Donna said as she held out her phone.

“Mom, to send a text, you have to actually press send on the text.” It mystified Felicity that her mother had a child and stepchild who were tech geniuses but couldn’t properly use her phone.

She had to go to work, but told her mother they’d get dinner later. By the time work was over, Felicity was exhausted. Luckily, Donna was willing to get Big Belly Burger with her. They were eating their fries and Felicity was telling Donna about her date with Thor when the lights cut out. Seconds later, the television turned on. A modulated voice started to speak.

“We are Brother Eye. Judgement has been rendered against this city. A sentence carried out. An earthquake, a siege, this is what comes next. A new life you will live on your knees and it will take nothing more than the push of a button. We are in control now, and this is just the beginning. Let there be light.” The power turned back on.

“I need to go.” She said standing up.

“What are you-?”

“The SCPD, sometimes they ask me for help with this kind of thing. I’m kinda like a consulting IT detective. Anyway, they’re gonna wanna find these hackers.”

“A CEO and a consulting detective. Look at you go.” Donna remarked. “Well, I’ll be here.”

It took an hour for Felicity to make it to the Arrowcave and discover the virus, or whatever Brother Eye was using, deleted itself after it was done. An hour after that, they made another announcement that they were attacking one of Starling’s banks. During the attack, Felicity managed to sneak a peak at the code and make a horrifying discovery: it was her virus, the ‘supervirus’ she and Cooper had written years earlier.

Thor called her while she was working, but she told him she couldn’t talk for very long because the city needed her help. Thor got off the phone and went to talk to Tony, wondering if he could help. Felicity went home, frustrated, and nearly got into a screaming match with her mother. Donna didn’t seem to understand that Felicity couldn’t rearrange her whole life because her mom showed up for a visit.

“I don’t want to hurt you but-“

“No, you’re right. It’s my fault for just showing up here uninvited. Seriously, I think I just got so excited about this free flight. And I haven’t gotten to see you in almost a year so-”

“’What?”

“My plane ticket, I got an email saying I’d won some contest. Free first-class round-trip to Starling.”

“Email?” Felicity said getting to her feet. Donna scrunched her eyebrows in confusion. She didn’t understand what Felicity was worried about. “Mom, someone wanted you to be here.” then, the front door was broken in and two men forced their way inside. They put black bags over both their heads and took the two blondes away.

The bag was pulled off of Felicity’s head. She looked around and saw Donna tied to the chair next to her. She also saw a computer set up with the Brother Eye logo on it. Given what she’d seen in their previous transmissions, she doubted they were holding her for ransom. She wasn’t sure if this was good or bad.

A door opened and someone stepped into the room. “Felicity Smoak. Just the woman I wanted to see.” A modulated voice said.

“Who are you? what do you want from me?”

“You really don’t know?” the voice asked before the person stepped into the light. It was Cooper. Who was dead, supposedly. “I thought you never forget your first love.”

“You died. They told me-“

“That I committed suicide, right? The NSA needed a hacker with game for cyber espionage, and I needed to not be in prison for the rest of my life. Because of what the NSA wanted me doing, it was….advantageous for me to be dead.”

“When I found out you died, I was devastated. I loved you.”

Cooper then launched into his explanation of his master plan. He needed Felicity to hack the Treasury Departments encryption to reroute the truck carrying a boatload of money. He flew Donna in so he’d have some motivation in town. All he wanted was money, yet Felicity was a sellout for growing up and getting a job in her field. The hypocrisy was killing Felicity.

During his explanation, Felicity’s phone kept ringing. Cooper got annoyed and smashed it with his foot. Oliver and Thor had both been calling her. Oliver was definitely worried or annoyed that she wasn’t at the foundry, trying to catch Brother Eye. Thor was probably worried about how she sounded the last time they spoke, or he’d seen what was happening on the news. Destroying her phone really wasn’t a great idea. If he didn’t know she was okay, he might come to Starling and try to find her.

 

“Felicity’s never more than five feet from her phone.” Oliver said as she failed to pick up, again. He was about to redial when his phone started to ring.

“Queen, where’s my sister?” Tony said as soon as he picked up.

“I don’t know. I’m trying to call her-“

“You don’t know. Point Break, he doesn’t know.”

Oliver could make out someone on the other end talking to Tony. “Perhaps the program she wrote-“

“Why didn’t I think of that?” He said. He turned his attention back to Oliver. “Did you ask ALEX?”

“Who’s ALEX?”

“Good evening, Mr. Queen. How may I help you?” A voice spoke from the ceiling.

“Um, hi. ALEX, right?”

“That is correct.”

“Do you know where Felicity is?”

“I do not. However, when I last connected with her phone, she was in a warehouse at 18th and Adams. The group Brother Eye, led by one Cooper Seldon, appeared to have taken her captive.”

“Captive?” Thor shouted.

“Seldon’s alive?” Tony asked. “J, deploy the Mark XVI .”

“Sir, you will not be able to reach her-“ The Mark XVI was the fastest flying suit he had, but it would still take two hours for him to fly to Starling.

“Just do it.” Oliver heard a crashing noise from Tony’s end. “And he’s gone.  Queen, you’re about to have one very angry god of Thunder on your hands.”

 

Felicity did as Cooper asked. She knew if she stalled it would be suspicious and she wouldn’t risk him hurting her mother to convince her to hurry up. After she told him she was done, he ziptied her to the terminal and he left with his goons. He came back in a minute later.

“I did what you asked, you don’t have to kill us.”

Cooper responded by pointing the gun directly in her face.

“Hey!” Donna yelled. “You wanna wave that gun at me, fine, but don’t you dare threaten my daughter.”

He lowered the gun but was still holding Felicity’s face. “Here I thought you were all nails and hair.”

“Try single mom working sixty hours a week in six-inch heels for tips in order to raise that genius child you see right there. I may not understand all this cyber-whatever, but I know without that gun, you wouldn’t last ten second against my girl.”

“Too bad she doesn’t have ten seconds.” He brought the gun back up to her face. A loud bang could be heard coming from the roof. “What was that? What did you do?”

“Back-up.” Oliver growled from the far end of the room. “In the form of one very angry god.”

Cooper hit a button that activated two motion-sensored machine guns that started firing at Oliver. The archer had finished dealing with the first one when Thor broke through the ceiling and shot lightning at the second one, frying it.

Cooper grabbed Felicity by the hair and held in front of him as a human shield. Oliver couldn’t get a clean shot in and Thor wouldn’t use his powers, afraid to hit her by accident.

“This is all your fault.” He said, holding the gun against her head.

Remembering the self-defense skills she learned from John, Rhodey, and Sara, she reached for the gun and elbowed Cooper in the face. She was able to get the weapon away from him and hit him across the face with it. Dropping it, she ran over to make sure her mom was okay. Cooper looked like he was about to get up, but a punch from Thor knocked him out.

“Well, this isn’t how I wanted you two to meet, but Thor, this is my mom Donna. Mom, Thor.”

“I wish we could have met under different circumstances.” Thor told her.

Roy and Digg ran into the building. “The robbers have been- Thor’s here.”

“Yup.” Felicity told them. She started to usher them out. “We can do introductions later.” Then, Tony flew into the building. He saw that Felicity and Donna were safe and Cooper was dealt with.

“Ok, who knocked Seldon out? I wanted to do it!”

“I did, friend Stark. He looked ready to attack Felicity from behind.”

“Well, at least your taste in men has improved, Fizzy.”

“Fizzy?” John, Roy and Oliver both asked incredulously.

“If you ever call me that, you’ll wake up completely broke and legally declared dead.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity talks about what happened with Cooper, Thor gets to explore Starling, and Smoak Tech gets some new blood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I didn't say this earlier, but SHIELD fell apart and is slowly getting put back together. However, a number of agents and staff, after the info dump, have decided maybe that's not the best career choice.

The SCPD arrived shortly after Tony did and took Cooper into custody, along with the rest of Brother Eye. Oliver, Digg and Roy went back to the foundry, while Felicity, Donna, Tony and Thor went to Felicity’s house. When they got inside, the awkwardness began to take over.

“Ok, lets do introductions again.” Felicity said, wanting to break the tension. “Donna Smoak, this is my boyfriend Thor Odinson, Prince of Asgard. Thor, this is my mother.”

“It’s an honor to meet you, Lady Stark.” He said, kissing her hand.

“Oh, none of that ‘Lady Stark’ stuff. For one, I’m not a Stark. And two, call me Donna.” She said before turning to Felicity. “I like him.”

“Really? When you called me screaming in excitement, I didn’t get that feeling.” she deadpanned.

“So, who wants coffee?” Tony asked. “Unless we want something stronger. We need to discuss the whole ‘Seldon’s not dead’ thing.”

His sister’s ex-boyfriend, who she’d been inconsolable over losing, was apparently not dead and had just kidnapped her and Donna. There wasn’t exactly a guidebook for this kind of thing. He couldn’t tell how Felicity felt about the news or what happened, as she’d become better at hiding her emotions lately.

“I don’t think there’s enough alcohol in the world for that.”

“I don’t follow.” Thor said. He knew Felicity knew the man who took her, but he didn’t understand why Tony seemed to be waiting for her to break down or why she seemed so conflicted. “Its apparent that you knew the man who abducted you, but I’m unaware of the rest. That is, if you’re comfortable telling me the story.”

“Cooper is- when I was in college, we were in a relationship. Our last year, he used a code of mine to hack into the government and, in doing so, broke a lot of laws. He was arrested and went to prison. I tried to tell the FBI the truth, that it was my code, but they didn’t believe me. He was found guilty at trial, but before he was sentenced, he killed himself. Or so I thought.”

“He faked his death.”

“He was recruited by the NSA. He ‘worked off’ his prison sentence helping them.”

“Let m guess, he’s served his time and now wanted revenge.” Tony cut in.

“No, at least he claimed not. He wanted money. The cyber attack on Starling National was so the mayor would reach out to the Treasury Department for a delivery of fresh cash. He didn’t have the skills to hack into the Treasury’s asymmetric encryption.”

“And you eat that kind of thing for breakfast.”

“Yup. I’m pretty sure part of this was revenge though. He didn’t need the cold hard cash, he could’ve just stolen all the money digitally and vanished to some country without extradition. He lured mom here, kidnapped us, he was going to kill us. All because he broke the law and went to prison like any other criminal.”

“He is a fool.” Thor said after the room went quiet. “I should have done more than simply render him unconscious.”

“No, you shouldn’t have. He’s not worth it.” she said. “It took me a while to realize that, but its true. I just want him to rot in prison and forget all about him.”

Soon enough, the excitement caught up to Felicity and Donna and they started to drift off. Donna went to bed in the guest room, Tony fell asleep on the couch and Thor and Felicity wound up sharing a bed after some convincing from Felicity. Everywhere else was taking and she wasn’t going to let him sleep on the floor. She only regretted it when Tony and Donna both gave her knowing looks the next morning.

Tony volunteered to drive Donna to the airport. After dropping her off, but before getting into his suit to fly back to New York, he made a phone call.

“Pep? Are there still a bunch of former SHIELD agents looking for work?  Because I think I know a company that’s hiring.”  He then called Felicity and asked if her company had any open positions.

Felicity was eating breakfast when Thor sat down next to her. “How are you feeling?”

“Ok, I guess. Yesterday was stressful so I took today off.” Last night had brought up some bad memories and she felt like a huge idiot.

“Could you show me around Starling?” He asked her.

“You wanna explore the city? I thought you might have to go back to New York.”

“There’s no immediate need. I came here to help you, yes, but I also wanted to see you. I was calling to discuss me coming for a visit, since we are doing ‘long distance’ as Clint put it.” he explained. “Unless, of course you don’t want me here.”

“No, no, I want you here, I just- I’m not used to this.” she told him. “Why don’t you change into something less, well, less Avenger-y and we’ll go?” Thor was still wearing his armor from last night. It  was perfectly fine for fighting, but it wasn’t exactly subtle or suitable for walking around the city.

Felicity and Thor walked around Starling all day. She took him to some of her favorite places and even got him to try Big Belly Burger, which he’d never had before. That night, she wasn’t sure if she should go to the foundry or not.

“I don’t understand the problem.” Thor told her when she mentioned it.

“Well, you don’t know who the Arrow is so-“ she didn’t want to exclude Thor, but she also didn’t want to reveal Oliver’s secret identity without talking to him first.

“Oliver Queen. Upon meeting the Arrow last night, it didn’t take very long for me to work it out. Your brother’s comments after we spoke on the phone confirmed it. I will not tell the other Avengers if that is your wish.”

“Let’s talk to Oliver about that, but he’s probably going to want you to keep it a secret.”

Thor and Felicity entered the lair and the first person they saw was Oliver. The archer was angry, as Felicity expected, that she’d told Thor his identity. What she didn’t expect, and neither did Oliver, was Thor’s reaction to his anger.

“Silence!” His voice boomed. “Do not insult Felicity by accusing her of such things or of being untrustworthy.”

“She revealed-“

“She revealed nothing. I am many things; a fool is not one of them. I figured out Oliver Queen and the Arrow were one and the same on my own, without her input.” He said. “Even if she had told me, that doesn’t justify your anger towards her. You are important to her, and she would not reveal something like that lightly or without a great deal of thought. How can you think so little of a woman you claim to care about?”

“I do care about-“

“Your behavior and your actions do very little to show it.”

“Guys, please, just- I get what you’re trying to do Thor, and I understand your reaction, Oliver, but this isn’t gonna go anywhere.” Felicity cut in. “And even though he knows who you are, he’s not going to tell anyone, right?”

“No. Felicity has made me aware of why you use a codename and keep your identity a secret, and I will respect that.”

“Good. Now that that’s cleared up, let’s do some actual city-saving.”

When Felicity went into work two days after her abduction, she found a group of people waiting on the top floor. There had been another large group in the lobby. They were all dressed like they were there for a job interview, which left the blonde confused. Tony had called her about filling some positions, but she thought he meant one or two. She walked through the crowd to talk with her EA. He said they were all there for a meeting with Felicity, as were the people downstairs. When she turned to address the crowd, a Chinese woman around Felicity’s height stepped forward.

“Dr. Smoak, my name is Melinda May. We all used to work for SHIELD.”

“I thought SHIELD was rebuilding. Or reforming or whatever.”

“Maybe they are, but none of us have any interest in continuing with the agency. We heard your company was looking for people.”

“Why? You all could go work for the CIA or FBI or ARGUS. Even SI. Why Smoak Tech?”

Another agent spoke up. “We’re only alive because of you and Dr. Stark. You saved us, you saved our families. You didn’t have to, it wasn’t your job, it wasn’t your fault, but you both still did it. Stark was only ever a consultant, you didn’t have any connection to SHIELD. We were hoping to repay you by working for you.”

“I don’t- I’m not quite sure what to say.”

May spoke again. “Say you’ll let us repay our debt to you.”

“Ok. What, uh, did SHIELD have departments? There’s no way everyone was a field agent. If you could kinda split into groups by department or area of expertise. Because I wanna have the relevant department heads interview you. Gerry, could you get all of the department heads up here and tell them it’s urgent?”

Over the next few days, Smoak Tech interviewed and hired all but one of the SHIELD agents who’d applied. The one who was turned down got hired at Star Labs, with Felicity’s help. The man just didn’t have a skillset Smoak Tech had a need for.  Isabel’s machinations had severely reduced the amount of staff Felicity had. With the hiring of so many former SHIELD agents, the company was now bigger than ever.  Security, legal, applied sciences, IT, accounting, statistics, HR, PR, every department gained at least four new people from the pool of former SHIELD agents.

 

Thor stayed in Starling for a week. He only went back to New York because there was a meeting to discuss Avengers-related business and Steve insisted he be there. Everyone was still searching for the scepter and there hadn’t been any leads yet. The god was annoyed about the meeting, since nothing that was discussed couldn’t have been said over the phone or through email.

Because of how late it was when the meeting ended, Thor stayed in the Tower for the night. The team had a very late dinner together and then everyone went their separate ways.

Steve and Natasha stood in the former’s room, debating what to do. “She hasn’t returned my calls.”

“Then go talk to her. Fly to Starling and see her in person. Let her know you’re serious.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” He’d put this conversation off long enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve and Natasha decide to talk to Felicity in person. They get a bit of a reality check.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is kinda long.

Felicity sighed as she looked over her call log. She had several missed calls from Steve Rogers, but he hadn’t bothered to leave a message. She didn’t understand why he kept calling her, didn’t know what he wanted, and was starting to get annoyed. On top of that, the same ‘this doesn’t feel right’ instinct she got when she last saw Steve came back every time she rejected a call from him. Things weren’t adding up. deciding that was a problem for tomorrow, she put her phone on silent and went to bed.

She woke up the next morning and started preparing for work. Out of habit, she glanced at her phone and saw a series of missed calls. A few were from Steve, but two were from Tony, or rather JARVIS. The AI had left a message asking her to call at her earliest convenience. Worried, she returned the call.

“Is Tony okay?” were the first words out of her mouth.

“Sir is perfectly fine. I merely wished to give you a head’s up, as the saying goes. Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanov left about thirty minutes ago to visit you in Starling City.”

“Why?” Felicity barely knew either of them. Why would they fly across the country to see her?

“Captain Rogers wants to ask you for a favor, and you haven’t responded to his attempts to contact you. Ms. Romanov suggested a more direct approach.” There was a pause. “I do not know what this favor is, but both appear adamant that they cannot ask Sir.”

“That’s not sketchy at all.” She deadpanned. “Well, thanks for the head’s up, J. I’ll tell my staff, give them a warning.”

As had become routine, Felicity left her house to find two members of her security team waiting outside with a car ready. Her assistant Gerry was already in the car. Today, it was Melinda May and another ex-SHIELD agent who she hadn’t gotten a chance to speak with one-on-one yet, but everyone called him Tripp. As soon as she got into the car, Felicity began talking.

“Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanov are on their way to Starling as we speak.”

“Do we know what they want?” Tripp asked as May pulled out her phone and started typing.

“No, but I’ve been ignoring their calls for a week and I guess they haven’t gotten the hint.” She then turned to Gerry. “Anyone not on the schedule to see me, or on the approved list, should be told I’m very busy and they need to make an appointment. Same goes with my calls.” The ‘approved list’ consisted of the people who didn’t need an appointment to see Felicity or have to jump through hoops to contact her. Oliver, John, Roy, Sara, Tony, Pepper, Donna, Rhodey, Thor and Matt were the entirety of the list.

They arrived at the office, and May told Felicity everyone in security and reception had been brought up to speed on the situation.  Operation Smoak Screen, as Felicity referred to it, was in effect. The blonde began working on her paperwork, wanting to get something done before Hurricane Steve showed up.

Steve and Natasha got out of their cab and looked up at Smoak Technologies. The building wasn’t quite as tall as Stark Tower, but it was still impressive. Nat paid the driver and they walked into the building. They went through the spinning door and entered a simply decorated, but upscale, lobby. People were coming in and out and didn’t seem to notice their arrival. Unsure of what else to do, Steve walked over to the desk where several receptionists were seated.

“Hello, I need to see someone.” He either didn’t notice or didn’t care that every person sitting at the desk was glaring at him and Natasha. Some were ex-SHIELD agents, others had simply heard about what the pair had done and were horrified by their actions.

“Ok, I’m gonna need your ID and your appointment verification number.”

For security reasons, all visitors had to show their IDs and give the receptionist an appointment verification number to prove they actually had a meeting with the person they claimed to. Occasionally, the latter would be waived if the meeting was announced on short notice or they weren’t heading to a secure floor. Felicity had instituted the rules after discovering how often Slade Wilson and Sebastian Blood snuck into QC, during work hours, to plan with Isabel. There were some exceptions, but neither Avenger needed to know that.

Steve took out his license and handed it to her. “I don’t have an appointment.”

“I cannot let you upstairs if you don’t have an appointment.”

“I just need to see Ms. Smoak.”

“Dr. Smoak isn’t available today.” The woman told him. “If you would like to schedule a meeting with her, I’d be happy to help you do so.”

Steve was beginning to get annoyed. “Do you know who we are?”

“Yes, but I don’t see what that has to do with needing an appointment. Being well known doesn’t mean you’re exempt from following the rules or going through the proper channels.” The receptionist, Liza Caldera, was a former SHIELD agent. She’d spent years as Victoria Hand’s assistant. She was as much a stickler for the rules as Hand was, and no one got past her unless they had everything they needed to.  

“We have important Avengers business we need to discuss with Felicity.”

“I wasn’t aware Dr. Smoak was affiliated with the Avengers. Even if she were, that doesn’t negate the need for an appointment to see her. I also assume, that if the ‘Avengers business’ were so important, you would’ve called and not wasted several hours on a plane to show up unannounced.”

“Look, miss-“

“You aren’t going to see Dr. Smoak today. You can either schedule an appointment with me, like everyone else, or leave.”

“I’m not leaving.”

Natasha spoke up for the first time. “Could you tell Ms. Smoak we’re here? We don’t have an appointment, but she might agree to see us if she knows we’re here.”

“I will send a message to Dr. Smoak’s assistant.” Liza opened the internal IM program and started typing. When the message was sent, she looked back at the pair. “I can’t do anything beyond that. If you’ll please step to the side so I can help the next person in line.”

 

Felicity was finishing up some reports when she heard Gerry burst out laughing. “What is it?”

“Captain Idiot and the Spider are here, demanding to see you. They actually pulled the ‘do you know who I am’ card.” he read out loud.

“Too bad I’m not here.” she said, turning back to her work.

 

“Reception, this is Liza. I see, I understand. I’ll pass it along.” Liza said before turning to look at Steve and Natasha. “That was Dr. Smoak’s assistant. I’m afraid she isn’t here and won’t be able to see you.”

“Where is she?”

“I don’t know. I’m just the receptionist.”

“Come on, let’s go sit down,” Natasha suggested. “She might be back later.”

Thanks to having a private elevator, Felicity was able to leave unhindered more than once during the day. Around five-thirty, when Smoak Tech was closing for the day, a few security guards approached where Natasha and Steve had staked out.

“The building is closed. I’m afraid I need to ask you to leave.”

“We aren’t leaving until we see Felicity.”

“Dr. Smoak is not here, hasn’t been here all day, and won’t be coming here tonight. If you don’t leave, I’m gonna have to call the police.”

“Police?”

“You’ve been asked to leave and you’re refusing. In the state of Washington that constitutes as trespassing.”

“Let’s go, Steve. We can try again tomorrow.”

Dejected, they headed to the nearest hotel. There was only one room left available because of a big event happening down the street. They went up to their room and started to strategize. Natasha sensed Felicity was avoiding them and Steve just wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible.

“So, I guess we’re going back tomorrow.”

“Not necessarily. We couldn’t catch Felicity at her day job, but her night job is a different matter.” She said. Her phone buzzed a second later. “Or better yet, we know where she’s going to be.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Felicity’s a local celebrity. Anytime she goes somewhere, it winds up on Twitter.”

“Ok, and?” Steve had heard of Twitter but he didn’t know what it was or how it worked. Or how it would help them.

“And she was seen entering a club named Verdant a few minutes ago.”

They headed out to the club. They arrived only to see that Verdant was closed for a private event. Security around the building was tight, since unbeknownst to them, the director of ARGUS was inside celebrating her birthday with some friends. The security detail noticed them very quickly and called the police, but Steve and Natasha left before they arrived.

The next morning, Felicity and her team repeated the process of sneaking her into Smoak Tech. At exactly 8am, Steve and Natasha returned to the office building and demanded to see her. The same receptionist gave them the same answer about needing an appointment. He made a scene, just like the day before, but then suddenly her desk phone rang.

“Reception, this is Liza….Uh-huh…..Uh-huh…..ok.” she hung up the phone. “Someone will be down in a moment to escort you up.”

“We don’t need an escort.”

“Yes, you do.” she said. “Because if you want to see Dr. Smoak, you need to be escorted upstairs. Take a seat please.”

Two generic security guards came into the lobby a minute later and told the pair to follow them. They got into the elevator and took it to the top floor. Exiting the elevator, Natasha found herself face-to-face with Melinda May and a man she didn’t know.

“I thought we were meeting with Felicity.”

“You are. Follow me.” she turned and walked away, not caring if they followed or not. She led them over to Felicity’s office but stopped in front of the door. “You’re gonna need to surrender them.”

“Surrender what?”

“Don’t insult my intelligence Romanov. You have Widow Bites somewhere on your person. Hand them over or I’m gonna have to search you.” she didn’t mention the bugs Natasha was probably going to plant because Felicity could handle those herself.

“I don’t.”

“Well, I can’t just take your word for it.”

“You’ve known me for years. We worked together. You don’t trust me?”

“It’s not about trust, its about following protocols I’ve been given.” May told her. She barely trusted Romanov before the mess with Hydra and she definitely didn’t trust her now. Still, there wasn’t a need to make a scene just yet. “Give me the Bites.”

Natasha knew she couldn’t win against May, and this wasn’t the reason they came, so she took both gauntlets off and handed them to her. Before she could say anything else, May grabbed a very heavy paperweight and destroyed them. 

“What the hell?”

“They’re weapons. You don’t have any documentation allowing you to carry weapons in this building. They had to be disposed of for security reasons. If you didn’t want that to happen, you shouldn’t have brought them into this building.” She shrugged. “Dr. Smoak is ready for you now.”

Startled at May’s behavior and the general hostility they were receiving, they walked into Felicity’s office. She looked up when they entered.

“Good morning.”

“Morning.”

“Hi, Felicity. I was hoping to ask you for a favor.” Steve said. “You see-“

“No.” she said, cutting him off. “It’s not your turn to talk.”

“It’s a little rude to interrupt people.” Steve didn't like this time period. Everyone was so rude all of the time.

“You wanna talk about manners, Captain Rogers? Fine. You wanna know what I think is rude? I think calling someone excessively is rude. I think flying across the country to see someone without telling them you were coming is rude. And its especially rude to just show up at their place of employment and demand they see you. As well as preventing people from doing their jobs because you aren’t getting what you want. That’s very rude.”

“I needed to talk to you and you weren’t answering.”

“And that should’ve given you a hint that maybe I didn’t want to talk to you. It seems you didn’t get the message, much like the lacrosse player I knew in college.” She said. “This might sound strange to you, but you aren’t entitled to my time. I’m a very busy woman who’s trying to run a company and you’re wasting my time. Now, I let you up here so you would stop harassing my employees. So, please, take this as my final answer. No. I’m not going to help you. I don’t care what it is you need. Get out of my office.”

“You have to help us.”

“I don’t have to do anything.” she countered. “I’m not an Avenger, we’re not friends. This is only the third conversation I’ve ever had with you. I do not owe you anything.”

Natasha went for a different tactic. “You know, your brother-“

“I'm gonna stop you right there. I’m not Tony, and if you really knew him, you’d know that. But I’ve got a question for you. if this favor is so important and such a priority, why fly all the way here instead of just asking Tony?”

She was met with silence, which verified her initial suspicions. Whatever Steve wanted, he wanted it to be a secret from Tony. Why he thought Tony’s sister would agree to that was beyond her.

“That’s what I thought.” She sighed. She had made up her mind days ago, but she was still curious what this whole mess was about. “Out of curiosity, what is the favor? Knowing might change my mind.”

Natasha tried to stop Steve from answering, but he ignored her.

“My friend Bucky, he was captured by Hydra during the war and they brainwashed him. They called him the Winter Soldier. He went missing after DC and I need to find him.”

Well, now she at least had a name to go on. She wasn’t sure if agencies were looking for the Winter Soldier or not. She also didn’t know why Tony couldn’t know about this, but she planned to find out. She found it oddly telling that he showed more concern about Bucky six months later than he did about what happened in DC directly after. The thousands of innocent SHIELD agents and civilians who’d been killed weren’t as important she guessed.

“I’m sorry to hear that, but my answer is still no.” She said. “Security will arrive in a moment to escort you out.”

“Wait, can I at least know why you said no? You were always going to say ‘no’ and I’d like to know why.”

She said ‘no’ because Steve’s attitude pissed her off. She refused because Natasha stabbed her brother in the neck with a syringe while he was dying. She said ‘no’ because she’d seen first hand what he’d caused when he dumped all those files on the Internet and then wiped his hands of the whole thing. Because Natasha’s testimony before Congress made her furious. Because her staff, who she respected, had their lives turned upside down by the two people in front of her. Some of them would never be the same because of it. But mostly, she refused because Steve was asking her to keep something, she didn’t know what, from Tony and she wasn’t okay with that.

“Too bad. Life’s full of disappointments.” She said. "You aren't entitled to my reasoning just like you aren't entitled to my time."

Security came to escort them out, and Steve was still to surprised to put up much of a fight. After they'd been herded into the elevator, Felicity began looking through the leaked files for information on Bucky Barnes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts?
> 
> Before anyone says it, please remember that, as Tony's sister, Felicity isn't an unbiased observer in all of this. So, some of her thoughts are going to skewed a certain way.


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha tells Steve he might've messed up while Felicity struggles with what to do.

Felicity waited for Steve and Natasha to leave before she started searching through the hydra files for anything related to Bucky Barnes. She soon became engrossed in her task and didn't notice someone else come into her office.

“Well that was anticlimactic.”

“What- yeah. Wasn't in the mood for a fight today. Did i make a mistake?”

“By saying no?”

“By just unleashing them to bother someone else.”

“They won't. Its too inconvenient. They most likely asked Dr. Stark and he said he was busy. They asked you because you’re Avengers-adjacent. Going beyond that would require effort on their part. What did they want anyway?”

“Nothing important.” Felicity said, turning back to her computer. She didn’t want to reopen old wounds with some of her employees by telling them about Bucky. At least, not until she knew more about the situation.

 

The two Avengers were escorted out of Smoak Tech. Steve was already brainstorming ways to change Felicity’s mind or how to find someone else to ask. The issue was he couldn’t be sure whoever they asked wouldn't turn around and tell the authorities about Bucky. Natasha was reflecting back on the conversation they’d had minutes ago.

“She said no, how do we change her mind?”

“I don’t know that we can. Even if we could, i’m not sure that we should.”

“What do you mean?”

“You fell for a pretty classic ruse up there Steve, and it might not end well.”

“What ruse?”

“Intelligence Gathering 101: never tell someone anything until they’re already on board.”

“I don’t see how-”

“You asked, she said no. Then, she pulled back a little bit, saying knowing what this was about might change her mind. And you told her what you wanted.”

“I was hoping hearing Bucky’s story might-”

“Yeah, but see that’s the thing. She wasn’t agreeing to help us, telling her didn’t change anything and now, she knows who we’re looking for.”

“She’s not gonna go after Bucky.” He didn’t know Felicity very well, as she said they weren’t friends, but he could tell she wasn’t the type to hunt someone down.

“I hope you’re right.”

 

Felicity spent most of her day looking through the Hydra files and not finding anything about Bucky Barnes or the Winter Soldier. She didn’t let that discourage her though. The sheer amount of documents she needed to sift through meant finding what she was looking for the first day was incredibly unlikely. She was so focused on her search that she didn’t notice as time flew by until Gerry came into her office.

“Dr. Smoak? It’s almost six o’clock.”

“It is? Woah, today just kinda flew by, didn’t it?” she asked as she turned off her computer and gathered her things.

Felicity went home, changed and drove to the foundry. She started running searches on her system there, and didn’t notice when the others arrived.

“Felicity. Felicity? Felicity!” Oliver said, trying to get her attention.

“What- oh, you guys are here.”

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah, I- i’m kinda facing a bit of a dilemma.” If anyone knew what to do in this situation, it would one of the three people in front of her.

“What is it?”

“So, hypothetically, let’s say that a friend of a friend, who you’ve met but only like twice, like i don’t know, Barry’s foster sister Iris, came to you and asked you for help. And Iris wants your help finding her friend Kevin..”

“Okay.” Oliver said, not sure where this was going.

“The problem is Kevin’s in trouble with the law, the police think he might’ve killed some people. On top of that, Barry doesn’t know Iris’s looking for Kevin because she hasn’t told him for some reason. What would you do?”

“I’m not sure I followed the metaphor here.”

“Fine, I’ll rephrase. Let’s put this another way. Let’s pretend Lyla doesn’t work for ARGUS. You ask John for help finding Slade, who ARGUS is looking for. Now, even though Lyla, in this scenario, doesn’t work for ARGUS, you didn’t ask her for help and you don’t want her to know you’re looking. And when John asks you why Lyla can’t know, you refuse to answer.” She said as she turned to John. “What would you do if you found Slade?”

“I don’t know.”

“I feel like we’re missing some details in this metaphor.”

“One of the Avengers asked for my help finding someone. This person may or may not be a fugitive. And on top of that, they came to me because they don’t want Tony involved, and I don’t know why.”

“I’d try to figure out the reason your brother’s being kept out of the loop. Then, make a decision.” Oliver said. “This Avenger might have a legitimate reason not to want to involve Tony. Or they might be trying to hide something.”

 

Thor got sidetracked in New York for two days. Some people from an organization with a bunch of letters, Tony told him the name of it but he didn’t remember, wanted to discuss Asgard and more importantly, Loki’s actions with him. He knew his brother’s actions would not be taken well and understood many people were upset. They also wanted to know as much as possible about his scepter and what it was capable of. He answered their questions as well as he could.

As a result of being sidetracked, Thor wasn’t able to return to Starling until three days after Fury called his meeting. He arrived at her house and saw she was engrossed in something on her tablet.

“Hello.”

She heard his voice and nearly dropped the device. “Thor! You’re back!”

“I apologize if I’m interrupting.”

“You aren’t.”

“Are you sure, it looks important.”

“It’s nothing that can’t wait.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity spends some time with Thor.

“It’s nothing that can’t wait.” Felicity assured Thor as she put the tablet aside. “Hi.”

“Hi.” He said, taking a seat next to her. “How have you been?”

“Good, I guess. Work’s been busy, but good busy, like we’re getting things done and projects are going well, not bad busy.” She explained. “How about you? What did Fury want? Did they find Loki’s scepter?”

“The meeting was a waste of time. He called it to tell everyone they still didn’t have a lead. I’ll admit I was frustrated that the captain insist everyone be there for it.”

“Don’t even get me started on him.” Felicity remarked.

“Captain Rogers has done something to anger you?”

“Yeah, he- I don’t like the way he talked about Oliver. He doesn’t know him, and is basing his opinion on what the press is saying, yet he thinks that’s enough to judge his behavior. I’m not saying Oliver hasn’t made mistakes or that everyone has to like or agree with what he’s done, but that doesn’t make it okay to just write him off as a thoughtless killer. I think that stems from my real issue with Rogers.”

“Which is?”

“His attitude. He gives off this- his way is the only way. He can’t be wrong. People who disagree with him or want to do things differently are wrong. I don’t like it. I don’t like the way he’s treated Tony in the past because of differences in opinion. And I don’t like the way he reacts when his plan gets challenged or things don’t go his way.” She explained. “I’m not saying he’s a bad person, I don’t think he’s a bad person. I just- his actions don’t sit well with me all the time.”

“That is understandable.”

“Enough about him, and the crappy pirate.” Felicity said, wanting to change topics. “If your meeting was super short, why were you gone for three days?”

“Our meeting with Director Fury was short, but then your brother told me members of an organization wanted to speak with me about Asgard and Loki.”

“What organization?”

“Their name had a bunch of letters in them. UN something.”

“UNAG? UNHRC?”

“Yes, those both sound familiar. What are they?”

“Well, they’re part of the UN. The UN, or United Nations, is an organization made up of most of the countries on Earth. Their purpose is to maintain global peace and security, help foster relationships between nations and promote social progress and human rights.” Felicity said. “UNAG is the UN General Assembly, which is the body where representatives from each country meet, debate and make policy. They’d view Asgard as a sovereign nation and might want to either have Asgard join the General Assembly or in the very least, establish a peace treaty with your people. They also wanted reassurance that his actions weren’t an indication that your people wanted to attack Earth.”

“That makes sense.”

“Now, the UNHRC is the United Nations Human Rights Council. Given both Loki’s actions and what his scepter is capable of, they’d be interested in talking to you. They’d see the scepter’s ability to control minds as a violation of human rights.” She explained. “How did that go?”

“It was frustrating. I wasn’t able to give them as many answers as they wanted. Much of what he did is still a mystery to me.” Talking about Loki, and what had happened, always made Thor sad. His brother had hurt people yes, and made mistakes, but he missed him nonetheless.

“This got too serious. And sad, I didn’t mean to bring it up.” She remarked when Thor seemed to be brooding. “Wanna get food?”

“Sure.” Thor said, standing up from the couch. “What was it you told me? Food makes everything better.”

“Pretty much.” She said. “But you should probably change. This is a little much.” She gestured to his armor and cape.

He took off his armor and changed into a T-shirt and hoodie. They walked to Big Belly and made small talk on the way there. Entering the restaurant, Felicity waved to Carly as she took a seat in the woman’s section.

“I’m glad you were okay with coming here. I’ve wanted a Belly Buster for the last three days.” Felicity said as she looked over the menu.

“I found that burger to be unsatisfying. It was delicious, but rather small. The Belly Bloater on the other hand-“

“Well, you’re like 200 pounds of pure muscle. And a giant. I’m not. So, I’ll eat my ‘rather small’ burger and not let you have any.” She stuck her tongue out for emphasis.

“I’m not a giant. You’re just not tall.” Thor teased. “And I like that about you.”

“Oh really?”

“Yes, I like most things about you.”

“Good answer.” She told him. “And I like the fact you’re a giant. You can reach things that I can’t.”

"Is that the only reason?" He asked, jokingly.

"The one that benefits me the most often."

They finished their meal before deciding to take a walk around Starling. They didn't talk about anything serious, but both of them agreed that it was nice, not needing to worry about things for the moment. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve almost spills the beans and Felicity makes a discovery.

**New York**

By the time Steve and Natasha made it back to New York, Nat’s words started to nag at Steve. Had he given Felicity too much information? What could she do with what he told her? Would she go after Bucky? The thoughts started to weigh on him. Part of him wanted to call Felicity and asked her to forget their conversation ever happened, but he was afraid that might set her off.

He went to the gym to try and take his mind off of things. He’d hit his way through three punching bags before anyone came looking for him.

“You know, I can develop a more resistant punching bag. One that’ll stand up to the force of a supersoldier. If you want.” Tony told him, leaning against the doorframe.

“No, its fine.”

“If you’re sure.” He didn’t move from his position, causing Steve to feel anxious.

“You need something?”

“There’s a question I wanna ask, and I can only ask you or Natasha, and you seem like the better option for getting an answer and not the run around.”

This was it, Steve thought. Somehow, Tony had found out about Bucky, found out what Hydra made Bucky do. He knew, and everything was going to fall apart.

“What is it?” Steve asked, trying to keep his tone even.

“You took a quinjet to Starling. I know this because it was due for maintenance the day that you took it. And you didn’t sign it out or tell anyone. I heard all about it from Hill.”

“Yeah, we did.” He admitted. Why did he need to tell Hill or anyone when he used the quinjet? He hadn’t had to in the past. “Why? What’s wrong?”

“Well, Hill wanted to tear you a new one for not following protocol and filling out the right forms.” Tony explained. “I’d like to know why.”

“Why what?”

“Why did you go to Starling?”

“Personal reasons.”

“Personal reasons. If you’re gonna take a multimillion dollar, weaponized aircraft out for a joyride, you’re gonna need to give me more of an explanation than that.”

“Why do I need to explain?”

“Because you flew over multiple military bases, all of whom have restricted airspace, and they weren’t too happy about that. Now, they’re coming to me for answers.”

“Just tell them it was Avengers business.”

“They already know that it wasn’t. Why did you take it to Starling? And I need you to give me a real answer this time.” Tony had spent two days trying to calm angry military personnel who wanted to know what the Avengers thought they were doing. He felt like an idiot trying to defend Steve.

“I needed to ask Felicity for a favor and it couldn’t wait.”

Tony knew all along that Steve had gone to visit Felicity. JARVIS had told him minutes after the quinjet left the tower. Felicity called that same day to let him know they landed safely and were giving her a headache. He mostly asked because he wanted to see what Steve would say. He might not be super great with people, but Tony could tell there was something sort of off with Steve lately. “What was the favor?”

“It doesn’t matter. She said ‘no’ before I could even ask and then Nat figured it out.”

“That’s probably a good thing. She’s kinda stressed due to the business transition. And when she gets stressed and people bug her, she gets more stressed and angry. And given how smart she is, making her angry isn’t a good idea.”

“Yeah, she kicked us out of her office.” He visibly relaxed. Tony didn’t know about Bucky. He was safe.

* * *

 

**Starling**

With Thor back in Starling, the pair developed a kind of pattern. Felicity went to work everyday. Sometimes Thor came with her, and learned more about Earth using a spare computer. Sometimes he didn’t and spent the day either exploring the city or training with Oliver. They weren’t best friends, but they got along. In the evenings, Felicity would go to the foundry and help Oliver save the city. Thor kept her company unless things got too dangerous, in which case he’d lend Oliver, Roy and Digg a hand.

While Felicity was doing ‘boring CEO stuff’, her own words, she used a program to search through the leaked Hydra files for any information about Bucky Barnes. She’d located plenty of documents describing missions he’d undergone and confirming hits he carried out, and she compiled those in a folder, but she still hadn’t discovered where he was or what it was about Barnes that had Steve so riled up and paranoid.

She knew she could ‘borrow’ a satellite or two and run a facial recognition program to find Barnes at any time, but she didn’t want to do that until she a) completely knew what she was dealing with and b) had a concrete reason to look for him. She'd read enough files about what Hydra had done to him, but didn't know what he might've done to warrant looking for him.

She was just getting off of a conference call with a Smoak Tech branch in London a week and a half after Thor returned when her computer beeped, letting her know the search program she was running on Barnes had found something. It hadn’t just found one document, but an entire folder’s worth of documents. She looked at just the dates on the files and picked up her phone.

“Hey, are you busy?”

“No, I’m waiting for a contact to get in touch with me. Why?” Sara asked on the other end of the phone.

“I started looking through some of those files that got leaked back in April.” She explained.

“Was this out of curiosity or something else?”

“Something else, but I can’t really explain what.”

“Ok. I take it you found something.” Sara said, waiting for Felicity to continue.

“There are a bunch of documents my search program picked out. They were all created in mid-December 1991.” She said. “Which is right around when-“

“When your father and his wife were killed. You think these files might be related.”

“I think I don’t wanna open them alone. And you were the only one I told about that memo other than Tony. So, even though you aren’t in town-”

“I’ll stay on the line.” She assured her. “Do you wanna FaceTime?”

“No, I- audio’s fine.” Felicity said as she clicked on the first file. She read it quickly, and it was just a report that the Winter Soldier had been woken from cryo. The next one was a status report on his condition after cryo. The third one outlined his mission and Felicity nearly dropped her phone. “That piece of shit. That actual fucking asshole. I’m gonna kill him. I’m gonna actually kill him.”

Sara knew that response could only mean one thing. “Felicity, I’m so sorry.”

“I- I need to go. I need to- can you not say anything about this just yet?” Her friend agreed and Felicity loaded one of her facial recognition programs and ‘borrowed’ a few of ARGUS’s satellites to run it on. While it ran, she made a phone call. “I need to talk to you, now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?
> 
> What do you think will happen next? Who did Felicity call? What plan, if any, does she have?


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Felicity makes the most reasonable decision she can and prepares to give Tony some bad news.

“I need to talk to you, now.” Felicity said when the person she was calling answered.

“What happened? What’s wrong?”

“I’ll explain, but- I’m not calling you because you’re a friend. I’m calling you because of what your job is.” She explained. “This is work-related.”

“So, you need Director Michaels, not Lyla Michaels.” Lyla summed up.

“Exactly.”

“Well, if I can be Lyla, your friend, for a few seconds, did something happen? Is John okay?”

“This doesn’t have to do with John or the team. At all. They don’t know I’m looking into this.” she explained. “It’s….well, its a family thing.”

“A family thing that you need ARGUS for.” Lyla said sounding suspicious. “How fast can you get here?”

“Give me half an hour.”

Felicity loaded all of the evidence she found onto her tablet and got her facial recognition program running on the device. She told Gerry and her other employees that she was leaving early today and headed to her car.

As she drove to ARGUS, she wondered if she was doing the right thing. On one hand, she was furious at Barnes for killing her father and Tony’s mother. She never got to meet either of them, but he was still her father and she wished she’d gotten to meet Maria Stark. She watched for years as Tony struggled with their deaths and blamed himself. On the other hand, she knew Barnes wasn’t really to blame. She’d read enough about what Hydra did to him, how they tortured him, to know that he wasn’t killing the Starks because he wanted to. He killed them but he wasn’t responsible. Logically, Felicity knew Barnes deserved his day in court. He deserved a chance to get justice, as did his victims. Emotionally, however, she couldn’t get the images from the video out of her head and the more she thought about it, the angrier she got.

This conflict was why she was seeking Lyla’s help. She was a somewhat neutral party in this whole situation and Felicity knew she could be trusted. ARGUS was completely separate from the SHIELD/Hydra debacle and Lyla wasn’t Amanda Waller. Felicity could admit to herself that she was too biased to be involved with finding Barnes and she wasn’t really experienced with this kind of thing.

At no point did Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanov or what their goal was cross Felicity’s mind. She was too angry to even think their names. Keeping any secret from Tony was bad, but keeping the truth about his parents’ death from him was unthinkable. They were both going to have a lot to answer for when the time came.

Felicity pulled up outside of ARGUS’s headquarters and passed through the various checkpoints before an agent escorted her to Lyla’s office. The other woman was already there waiting for her.

“What’s this about?”

“Back in June, I started looking through some old Hydra files. Curiosity I guess. I found evidence that Hydra  sabotaged my father’s car, causing it to crash.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Thanks, but that’s not all. Ca- someone mentioned the Winter Soldier recently and I got curious. I found out he was Sergeant James Barnes, from World War II. I found out Hydra found him and brainwashed and tortured him until he didn’t know which way was up and they turned him into a weapon. I wasn’t actively looking for him, until now that is. I found- Hydra didn’t sabotage the Starks’ car. The Winter Soldier shot out the tires so they’d crash. My father thought he was a passing motorist and begged him for help and he beat my dad’s skull in before strangling Maria Stark.” She said. “I know all of this, because one of the files I found looking into the Winter Solider was a video tape of it happening, which I watched. And that’s why I’m here.”

“Felicity, what are you asking me to do?”

“He needs to be found. He needs to be brought in. He needs to have his day in court and be given the chance to set things right. And I don’t think I can, or should, be involved in finding him.” She answered. “He’s underground, and I think he’s trying to get his head together. If I told the CIA or Interpol or MI6 how to find him, they’ll probably try to kill him. And SHIELD may just set him off. I’m hoping that by telling you all of this, and giving you the tools to find him, you’ll handle things the right way.”

“You don’t wanna be involved at all?”

“I’m too angry right now. Angry and a lot of other things that I can’t put a name to because the feelings are too complicated. I’m aware of that. But I like to think that I’m a good person and I don’t want to ruin Barnes’ chance at recovering from his trauma or getting the opportunity to set things right or the families of other victims finding closure because I want revenge which will only feel good for about two minutes.” Felicity explained before handing the tablet over. “It’s running a facial recognition program on a number of ARGUS’s satellites, which I hacked. Sorry about that.”

Lyla took the tablet and glanced at it before looking back at Felicity. “I can’t promise we’ll bring him in peacefully. If he escalates the situation, we’ll be forced to react in kind. But, I agree with where you’re coming from and we’ll do the best we can.”

“Thank you.” Felicity stood up and headed towards the door.

“I’m sorry about your father, Felicity. How did Tony take it?”

“I haven’t told him yet. I just- this isn’t a conversation I can have over the phone.” She left and closed the door behind her. Felicity got into her car and drove home.

She made it most of the way to her apartment when the tears started to fall. She was surprised she managed to hold them in for so long. She went inside, collapsed on the couch and started sobbing.

“What’s wrong? What happened? Who did this to you?” Thor asked upon seeing her.

She couldn’t answer and just kept crying. Unsure of what else to do, he held her as she cried and didn’t speak again until the tears seemed to subside.

“Feeling better?”

“No. I just- I think I ran out of tears to cry.” She said, wiping around her eyes.

“Why are you upset?”

Thor, like most of the world, believed Howard and Maria Stark died in a car accident. So, Felicity had some explaining to do. “I just- I found- I found out my father was murdered.”

“I’m very sorry. Your brother didn’t-“

“He doesn’t know. I- I can’t just call him and tell him what I found. I need to- I have to tell him in person, I have to go to New York, I need to-“

“What do you need?”

“I need to tell my team what’s going on, so they won’t worry, and then we need to go to New York.”

 Thor nodded and grabbed Felicity’s phone off of the table. He found Oliver’s name in the contact list and dialed the phone. “Could you and your comrades come to Felicity’s residence? She needs to speak with you urgently.”

Oliver, John and Roy raced over, worried about their friend. Felicity explained that in Hydra’s files, she’d discovered that her father had been murdered. She didn’t explain beyond that, since it didn’t seem right to tell them everything before she told Tony. She explained that she was going to New York to break the news to her brother. They understood and offered their support.

Felicity called Pepper and Rhodey. She asked if they both could be at the Tower the next day, as she had something she needed to tell Tony. She also asked Pepper to make sure the four of them could be alone since it was a sensitive topic. Pepper agreed and Felicity and Thor headed towards the airport.

The pilot was going through his final checklist before take-off when she received a text from Lyla.

>>I know you don’t want to be involved, but I thought you should know that we have a lead. A very promising one. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Before she could respond, Tony called her. "I hear you're coming to visit."

"Yeah, there's something I need to tell you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity has a very difficult talk with Tony. Bucky makes a new acquaintance.

**Romania**

James Barnes had just come back from the market with groceries when he felt it. A sudden shift in the air. No matter how much he wanted it to stop, he couldn’t shake the instincts his years as a prisoner of Hydra instilled in him. He knew when he was being watched and he knew when someone was about to sneak up on him.

The floorboard just inside his apartment creaked as someone stepped on it. He waited for the person to lash out or a gunshot or a string of words to come spilling from the intruder’s lips. To his surprise, none of that happened. Slowly, he turned around.

Standing behind him was a woman in her early thirties with brown hair that was pulled back into a ponytail. She was dressed in all black and had the bearings of a soldier. She waited for him to finished analyzing her before speaking.

“Sergeant Barnes?” She said.

“I haven’t been a sergeant in a long time.” He remarked.

“Ok, what should I call you then?”

He thought about it for several moments before answering. “James. James is good.”

“James, then. My name is Lyla Michaels. I’m the director of ARGUS. I’m here to bring you in.”

The name ARGUS sounded familiar but he couldn’t place it. He’d heard the name somewhere before. “Bring me in?”

“You’ve done some pretty bad things. Hydra made you do bad things. There are people who want answers and some who want to see you punished for what they did.”

“You’re gonna throw me in prison.”

“No, I’m hoping to avoid that. You need to meet me partway though. You weren’t in a functioning state of mind, so putting you in prison would be wrong on many levels. It’s true that you could be a danger to others, but you’re also a victim in many respects. There’s a high-security psychiatric facility in Oregon. You’ll be able to recover from the trauma you’re dealing with and maybe along the way, the people who want answers can get them.” She told him.

“It’s not that simple.”

“Why not?”

“They didn’t jut torture me. They brainwashed me, they- they put words into my head to make me do whatever they said. Trigger words, that’s what the internet called them. They’re still in my head and until they can be removed, I can’t- no one’s safe.”

“Well, it’s a good thing I know some pretty smart people who can help with that.” She told him. “And they’d be willing to. Are you going to let us take you back to the US peacefully?”

He nodded. “I’m tired of fighting.”

Two ARGUS agent entered the apartment behind Lyla and handcuffed Bucky. Everyone knew they couldn’t do much to contain him if he really wanted to break out, but it was part of the process.

“Before we leave, is there anything you’d like to take with you? Within reason, of course.”

He nodded. “There’s a notebook on that table. It’s- when I remember something, whether it’s a hit I carried out or something from when I was a kid, I write it down in there.”

“You remember some of assassinations?” Lyla asked somewhat surprised.

“I remember all of them.” He said.

Lyla turned to the two agents with her. “Give us a minute.” They left the room. “Howard and Maria Stark, do you remember them?”

“Yes.” He said, not looking at her. Why was she asking about them? Did she know them? Was she related? He thought the Starks only had one child, a boy.

“I’m a friend of Howard Stark’s daughter. She was the one who convinced me to find you, to bring you in peacefully and help you.”

The revelation threw him for a loop. If anyone should want him dead, it would be Howard Stark’s children. Yet, she wanted to help him. “Why would she do that?”

“I don’t know. I guess she believes in second chances.” She answered.

Bucky was quietly escorted out of the building and to an ARGUS plane. As promised, they flew him to a mental facility in Oregon and began the process of getting him registered as a patient. As an added security measure, he was placed there under an assumed name.

* * *

 

**New York**

Felicity’s plane landed in New York and Thor flew her to Stark Tower, landing on the terrace. She entered the building and was greeted by JARVIS who told her Tony, Pepper and Rhodey were on their way upstairs.

“Thor, could you- I need to talk to Tony alone.”

“I wish to support you during this difficult time.” He argued.

“I know that, and I appreciate that, but I- this is a conversation he and I need to have alone. JARVIS will tell you when we’re done but this is something I need to do alone.”

“Ok.” Thor agreed right as the elevator opened and Tony, Pepper and Rhodey stepped out.

The engineer rushed over to his sister and started looking her over. “Are you okay? What’s wrong? What happened?” He turned around to face Thor. “What happened to her? I thought you were gonna keep her safe.”

“Tony. Take a seat please.” Felicity said, getting his attention. Thor got into the elevator, giving them some privacy. “Where are the others?”

“Bruce went to Central City to help your friends at Star Labs with something. Barton is who knows where, but according to JARVIS, he’s not in the building. Natasha and Steve wanted to go on a vacation, so they took one of my planes to Brazil.” Her brother answered.

Felicity thought for a second and she could kind of see the logic. Natasha probably told Steve that after World War II, a number of Nazis fled to South America and hid there. She probably suggested that Bucky may have done the same. Even if he didn’t, Hydra members who knew him might be there.

“What’s this about?”

“I lied to you about when Rogers and Romanov came to see me. I refused to help them, yes, but first I wanted to know what they’re agenda was. What they wanted. He’s looking for the Winter Soldier, because the Winter Soldier is Bucky Barnes.” She said. “I got curious, so I started looking through the Hydra files.”

“You found something, didn’t you?” Pepper asked.

She nodded. “He- Hydra didn’t tamper with the breaks on Howard’s car. The Winter Soldier shot out one of their tires and caused them to crash.” Her voice faltered. “There’s- they have a tape of it, of their- I watched it. I didn’t know if you- I asked Pepper and Rhodey to be here because you shouldn’t-”

“JARVIS.”

“Yes, sir?”

Tony needed to know. Felicity had watched the video, she knew what happened and now he needed to see it too. “Play the tape.”

The group sat in silence while Howard and Maria’s deaths were shown on Tony’s large television. After the Winter Soldier shot the camera recording the whole thing, the tape stopped and everyone turned to Tony.

 

“I- I wanna kill him. He killed my mom.” He said. “He- they- does Steve know?”

“I don’t know.” Felicity didn’t know what Steve did or didn’t know. “And you know how I feel about commenting on things I don’t know. His actions, specifically his decision not to ask you for help, they could be because he knew about this and feared what you would do. It could also be general paranoia about ‘the government’ hunting down and killing his friend for simply being the Winter Soldier. You work with the government more frequently than I do, as far as he knows.” She took a deep breath. “There’s something else you should know.”

“What?”

“Not including this footage, I handed everything I found on the Winter Soldier over to ARGUS. I knew me looking for him wasn’t a good idea, but that didn’t mean no one should.” She told him. “Lyla, I asked her to try and bring him in peacefully. People want answers, people need closure, and that’s not gonna happen if he stays underground or gets killed in a stand-off.”

“Who else knows?” Pepper asked.

“We’re the only ones who’ve seen the tape. Sara knows because she was on the phone with me, but she doesn’t know it was the Winter Soldier, just Hydra. Lyla knows because I had to explain why I didn’t wanna be involved. All Thor and Team Arrow know is that I found out our dad was murdered.”

“Is Director Michaels going to tell you when they find him?”

“More or less. She’ll probably tell me I don’t need to worry about the situation and that’ll be it.” Felicity answered. “No specifics unless I ask, and I most likely won’t.”

* * *

 

**Brazil**

Steve growled in frustration. He and Nat had come to Brazil looking for Bucky or some clue to where he was, but had no idea where to start. It had been months and there hadn’t been any sign of Bucky. He was starting to worry he might already be too late.

“You know we just got here, right?” Natasha pointed out. “It would be a miracle if we found a clue to his location as soon as we stepped off of the plane.”

“I know, its just- I didn’t think it would be this hard.”

“If Hydra did one thing right, it was teaching him how to blend in. Not many people would be able to find the Winter Soldier if he didn’t want to be found. We’ll find him, it’ll just be a challenge.” She assured him before voicing a concern she’d been having for a while. “What happens after?”

“What?”

“After we find Bucky. What happens next?”

“We get him back to New York. We get him help. When he’s better, it’ll be just like old times.”

“Oh.” Steve’s answered wasn’t what she was expecting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	26. Chapter 26

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity and Tony come to decision, and Thor helps Felicity take her mind off of things.

After Felicity was done talking to Tony about Lyla’s agreement with her, the group went quiet. Tony was at a loss for words and while Pepper and Rhodey had plenty of things they wanted to say, they knew none of it was helpful.

“What happens when Rogers comes back?” Rhodey asked eventually.

“What do you mean?”

“Do we confront him to see what he knows? Do we tell him his friend’s been found? Should we have security here to escort him out?”

“I say we do nothing. And I don’t mean that in a ‘he gets away with this’ way.” Felicity said. “We don’t know what he knows, and if we confront him, or try to ask, he’s gonna know something’s up and deflect. Or he’s gonna try to spin it to make things look better. I say we wait and we watch, because he’s getting desperate and sooner or later, he’ll come to Tony for help. And we don’t tell him when Bucky’s found. He didn’t share info with Tony, so how were we supposed to know Steve would care about ARGUS finding a person of interest?”

Felicity knew she was being vindictive about this. She knew keeping Steve in the dark when he was worried about his friend might sound cruel. If it were Tony, Oliver, Roy, Digg, Barry or Sara, she’d go to the ends of the Earth to find them, but she wouldn’t have lied to her other friends to do it. She was so angry at Steve’s actions that she wasn’t trying to be kind right now. Knowing she was thwarting Steve’s plans kept her from calling Star Labs for a favor or doing something she might regret.

“I’d rather we kick them both out, slap them with lawsuits and be done with it, but your way works too.” Pepper chimed in.

“Pep?” The vitriol she’d spoken with surprised Tony a little bit.

“I don’t like his dismissive attitude towards you or his assumption that because he’s Captain America, he’s entitled to your time. And I haven’t liked Romanov since the Vanko incident.” She explained. “But they were your team, so I kept it to myself.”

“I’m gonna leave you alone.” Felicity said standing up. “I- this has been kinda draining and I need a breather. And Thor’s probably pacing downstairs, wondering if I’m okay.”

She was stepping into the elevator when she heard Tony speak. “Thank you.”

“We gotta stick together, right?” She said with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes as the doors closed.

 

Felicity landed on her floor and Thor was approaching her as soon as the doors opened. “How did it go?”

“About as well as it could have. It wasn’t an easy conversation to have.”

“No, I don’t think it would be.” He agreed. “Is there anything I can do? Any way I can help?”

“Um, yeah, actually. If you could- can you not tell anyone about what I learned?”

“You don’t want others to know your father was murdered?”

“No, I don’t. Its- I don’t want everyone to know just yet. I’m not ready to talk about it.” She explained. “Please, can you do that for me?”

“Of course.” He told her.

“Ok. you know what I think we should do? I think we should order some food and watch a bunch of B-movies. Because that always makes me feel better.” The last day had been an emotional rollercoaster and she knew it was going to catch up to her soon enough.

“Are there that many films about bees?” Thor asked.

“No, not bees the insect, B as in the letter.” She said laughing. “It’s another term for movies that aren’t very good and fun to poke fun at. I need to do something to take my mind off of things and make me laugh.”

“Oh. That sounds quite fun.” The Asgardian told her. “And it will make you feel better?”

“I hope so.” She told him.

Through JARVIS, Felicity ordered enough food to feed eight people and found a channel that seemed to play only movies that had the ‘so bad its good’ quality to them. The pair made it through two films and they were at the beginning of a third, a film about zombie beavers, when Thor heard a sniffle coming from next to him. He looked over and saw that Felicity was starting to cry. He opened his mouth to ask what was wrong, but thought better of it. The answer to his question was fairly obvious. Unsure of what else to do, he put an arm around her and held her as she cried.

“I’m so sorry.” He told her.

“I don’t even know why I’m crying. He- its not like I knew him.” She said, wiping her eyes.

“He was still your father.”

“I promise I don’t cry like this all the time, I just-.”

“You don’t need to explain. Having lost my mother and my brother, I know what you’re feeling right now.”

“That was recent. My da- Howard died back in 1991. That was over twenty years ago.”

“But you learned the truth only a few days ago. And as a friend once told me, there’s no limit on grief.” Heimdall had told him that when Odin seemed annoyed that Thor mourned Loki for so long after his fall from the Bifrost.

Felicity went into the bathroom to wash her face before coming back out to where the TV was. She sat down next to Thor and rested her head on his shoulder. “Thanks. I needed that.”

“Do you want to keep watching the movie?” He asked.

“Yes. It was just starting to get interesting.” She said as she picked up the remote. _Zombeavers_ started to play. It was a ridiculously stupid film, but it was amusing to watch and that was the point.

Felicity decided to stay in New York for the time being so she could be there for Tony. He didn’t say anything to her, but she knew he was, understandably, having a rough time dealing with things. She got a text from Lyla saying the situation was under control on the second day.

On the fifth day, Felicity and Thor stayed out late one night to explore New York after dark. They returned to the Tower around one A.M. and, as always, Thor escorted Felicity to her room. When they reached Felicity’s floor, she asked Thor if he wanted to come inside for one last drink.

The next morning, Felicity went up to the penthouse for breakfast. Bruce, Pepper and Tony were already upstairs eating. She poured herself a cup of coffee and was taking her first sip when her brother spoke.

“That was some thunderstorm last night. Weird, considering the forecast was supposed to be clear.”

Felicity put her mug down and looked over to her brother. “Think for a second, Tony. Do you really want me to respond to that?” She poured another cup of coffee and carried both over to the elevator. “I think I should just go back to bed.”

She’d only been gone for a few minutes, so Thor was still asleep in her bed. She put her coffee down on her dresser and placed his on the night stand before crawling back into bed. Thor’s arm tightened around her waist.

“Good morning.”

“Morning.” He responded with his voice sounding sleepy. “You smell like coffee. I like it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	27. Chapter 27

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity gets some visitors, the shovel talk is discussed and someone asks for a favor.

Felicity and Thor stayed in bed for another few hours. They finally got out of bed when JARVIS told Felicity she was needed in the penthouse. Confused and a little worried, they both headed upstairs where Sara and Nyssa were waiting.

“Greetings, Felicity Smoak of MIT.” Nyssa said as they entered the room. Sara had a much different reaction.

“Oh, my god. Felicity, you- we need to talk later. In detail.” Sara said, wiggling her eyebrows. Based on Tony’s expression and how happy Felicity and Thor looked, something had happened between them.

“Beloved, that is not why we are here.” Her girlfriend reminded her.

“Right.” The blonde said. “Officially, I’ve come to ask you to look at this.” She handed Felicity a battered laptop that was several years old. “Unofficially, we’d like to know whose ass we need to kick.”

“What do-?”

“When you and I were on the phone, and you found something. That was the angriest I’ve ever seen you. I would’ve gotten here sooner, but the weather delayed me.” Sara said. “Still, whoever made you that angry needs to pay. Whose ass do I need to kick?”

“Can I talk to you over here for a second?” Felicity said, pointing to the corner. They moved aside and Felicity gave Sara a little more detail. She explained that the person responsible was in custody already. She also told her that very few people were aware of that fact and she didn’t want it to get out. The Canary promised to keep the secret, and Felicity told her she could pull the data off of the laptop within the next few hours. Sara and Nyssa left soon after.

“Ok, what was that about?” Tony asked.

“Sara and her girlfriend. They stopped by to ask me for a favor. They also wanted to make sure I was okay after….you know.”

“Yeah, no, I get that. But why does Sara’s girlfriend look so serious and why did they both volunteer to hurt Barnes for you?”

“Nyssa’s sense of humor is just very dry. Half the time when she makes a joke, no one realizes it until a few minutes later. She’s awesome, even though she doesn’t always get my references. As for their offer….Sara’s been through a lot and her experiences have made her very protective of people she cares about. They both are, which is why they made that offer. They also offered to beat Oliver up for me after he pulled his stunt. And why I had to talk Sara out of giving Thor the shovel talk.”

“Shovel talk?” Thor asked.

“I’ll explain later.”

“She doesn’t get to do that.” Tony argued. “I’m your older brother. If anyone gets to give Point Break here the shovel talk, its me.”  

“Um, no. Because that’s not nice. And also, I don’t need you or anyone else threatening people for me. I’m a grown-up.”

“Threats? What kind of threats?” Thor interrupted.

“Basically, Sara or Tony were gonna tell you that if you hurt me, they’ll kill you or something equally threatening.” Felicity explained.

“Oh.” The Asgardian said. “Your friend John Diggle already made such a threat.”

“Of course he did.”

“As did Oliver Queen, your mother, Roy Harper and Ms. Potts.” He continued.

“I’m sorry about them.” She said apologetically.

“Do not be sorry. You’re lucky to have so many people who care about you that much. It’s a good thing.” He assured her. “I will admit, your mother’s talk was the most intimidating.”

“Really? My mom scared you more than Digg or Oliver?”

“There’s a certain…..ferocity that arises when a mother’s trying to protect her child.” Thor said, thinking about his own mother. Frigga was tough, but when he or Loki were in danger, she became way more terrifying than Odin.

“He’s right. Donna’s downright terrifying when she thinks you’re in danger. Remember that time that burger place didn’t tell us they fried things in peanut oil? I thought she was gonna go over the counter at the manager.” Tony said, recalling an incident when Felicity was about five. Felicity had gone into anaphylactic shock because of her nut allergy, Donna almost murdered the manager and, thanks to Tony bringing up the lack of a warning, the place was met with a lot of criticism until they put the warning on the menu.

Felicity went downstairs to start working on the laptop from Sara. For such an old computer, it was up-to-date in terms of security measures. It wasn’t difficult for her to hack into the system, but it posed more of a challenge than she originally thought.

What she found on the hard drive surprised her. She thought the computer might’ve belonged to Malcolm, since Sara mentioned the League was investigating his death. Instead, she found dozens of files related to finding him. Possible sightings, theories about how he survived the Undertaking, and his known aliases. This didn’t belong to Malcolm, it belonged to someone trying to kill him. Possibly the person who did kill him. She downloaded copies of all of the files onto a USB drive to give to Sara later.

After Felicity had finished looking at the laptop, Thor suggested they go to Central Park. They’d both spent most of the last week inside the Tower and he was starting to get cabin fever. He suspected Felicity might be too. They spent about an hour walking through the park, talking. He told her some more about Asgard while she listened with rapt attention. Felicity was about to start telling her own story when her phone rang. It was Oliver.

“Someone’s killed a suspected murderer and left him for the police to find.” He said as soon as she answered the phone. “They dressed the body up as the Arrow. And he wasn’t the first victim. I know you’re dealing with some things right now, and I’m sorry to ask this, but-”

“You need my help.” She finished. “I can leave soon, I’ll be back by tonight.” She ended the call and turned to Thor. “I need to go back to Starling.”

“Ok. let’s go back to Stark Tower, pack and then we can return there.” He said.

They headed back and began packing. When her bags were full, Felicity went upstairs to say goodbye to Tony. She explained that there was a potential serial killer at large in Starling City and that her team needed her. Tony wished her good luck and reminded her that he was always there if she needed help. He was walking her out when the elevator doors opened.

Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanov stepped out. When they saw Felicity, Steve stopped in his tracks. “Felicity? What are you doing here?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	28. Chapter 28

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity has a confrontation, Natasha makes a suggestion and Cupid continues to plague Starling.

Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanov stepped out of the elevator. When they saw Felicity, Steve stopped in his tracks. “Felicity? What are you doing here?”

“How was your trip? Brazil right? What made you decide to go there?” Felicity asked him. It was probably mean, but she liked watching him squirm.

“Why are you here?” Steve repeated.

“You’re a little tall and flat-chested to ask her that question.” Tony said from behind her.

“What?” The supersoldier asked.

“I’m saying that you aren’t her mother, so you don’t get to ask her questions like that.”

“Now, Tony-“

“Tony, I’ve got this.” Felicity said interjecting. “Who are you again?”

“I’m Captain America. You know who I am.”

“Right. Like you said, you’re Captain America. You aren’t my parent, you aren’t my boss, you aren’t my boyfriend. You have no authority here. Well, you have no authority period, if sky isn’t falling and its noticeably not falling right now. So, tell me why I should answer your question?”

“Felicity-” Natasha started to say.

“Don’t even get me started on you.” She said, without even looking at the redhead. “Let me make something very clear. I don’t owe either of you shit. If I wanna be in this building, which partially belongs to me, FYI, I will. And I don’t need to explain to you, or anyone else, why I decided to visit my brother.”

“I don’t know what we did to make you so hostile towards us.”

“Oh, this isn’t me being hostile. This is me being annoyed. You’ll know if I get hostile. You know, maybe its your attitude. Seems like every time I see you, you’re demanding things that you don’t have the right to ask for. You also bulldoze past anyone who puts up a resistance or doesn’t give you what you want. Maybe I’m still angry about that stunt you pulled at my company.” She said. “Or maybe I just don’t like you. Which, neither of you can probably fathom, given your inflated sense of importance.”

“Damn.” Tony said from behind her. “Another burn from Smoak.’

“Tony.” Steve said in a disappointed tone.

“What? She burned you, it was great. I gotta recognized it.” He defended.

“Well, I’d stay a little longer. But the company’s become less than desirable. Goodbye, Captain Propaganda, Red Scare. It wasn’t nice seeing you.” Felicity said as she walked off.

Tony burst out laughing when she said that. They both turned to face him looking unhappy. His laughter subsided and he shrugged. “What?”

“Why would you let her talk to us like that?”

“I don’t ‘let’ my sister do anything.”

“Still, you should’ve-“

“I know I look a lot like him, and ice might’ve addled your brain, but let’s make something clear. I’m not Howard. I’m not her father. She’s an adult and if she wants to call you an asshole to your face, I’m not gonna stop her.”

“But she-“

“As soon as you stepped out of the elevator, you were staring at her like you expected her to attack you. You were practically interrogating her about why she was here. Are you really surprised that she got angry at that?” Bruce, who everyone had forgotten was in the room said. No one had a response to that, much to Steve’s chagrin.

 

Steve and Natasha went down to their rooms and began planning their next move. “I think we should take a break for a little bit.” She told him.

“No, we’re-“

“We’re nowhere, Steve. The trail’s gone cold. And if we keep going to random places and hoping to find something, we might miss something.”

“What do you mean?”

“If when we were in Brazil, there’d been a sighting in Italy, by the time we got there, he’d already be gone. And if we keep disappearing for days at a time, people are gonna get suspicious. They’re gonna start asking questions. Questions I don’t wanna answer, do you?”

“You’re right.” He admitted. “I don’t think Felicity looked into what we told her, or said anything to Tony.”

“We don’t know that. And now isn’t a good time to find out.” Natasha was a lot of things, but first and foremost, she liked to think she was a realist. Felicity’s behavior had surprised her, but she wouldn’t make that same mistake again. Still, the fact remained that they weren’t in a good position right now where she was concerned.

“What do you mean?”

“We messed up. We burned the bridge we had with her. It’s gonna take some time to rebuild it before we can find out what, if anything, she knows. All we know for sure is that Tony doesn’t know about Bucky.”

JARVIS recorded the conversation, as he recorded everything that happened in the building and stored it in his data banks. This video might be useful later, but nothing they said was incriminating enough to warrant showing Tony.

* * *

 

**Starling**

Felicity and Thor made it back to Starling just before nightfall and she immediately headed to the foundry. The rest of the team was already there.

“Any new victims? Any updates?”

“No to the first, thankfully. And a possible lead on the second.” Roy answered. “They left the arrow in the last victim. Lance gave it to us.” He held up the plastic evidence bag. “Don’t know why it’s arrowhead is shaped like a spade.”

“It’s not a spade.” Felicity said, reaching to take the arrow from him. She held it with the head at the bottom. “It’s a heart. Arrows shaped like heart, victims dressed like the Arrow. I think someone’s trying to get Oliver’s attention.”

“Yeah, laugh it up.”

“I’m not laughing, people are dying.” She said. “And unlike some people, I’m gonna put my other interests aside to deal with that.”

“What people? You said ‘unlike some people’, you wanna stop this person. Who are you talking about?”

“As I was leaving New York, I ran into Rogers and Romanov, it didn’t go well. They pissed me off.”

“Captain America pissed you off?” Roy asked. Captain America, the wholesome do-gooder, managed to piss off Felicity, who after working with Oliver for years had a lot of patience dealing with people. That didn’t make any sense to him.

“Don’t fall for the hype. It’s a stage name, and he’s started buying his own press.” She said. “We don’t exactly get along.”

“I think we got that.” Digg said. “By the way, Lyla said you should call her. Wouldn’t tell me much more beyond that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?
> 
> What do you guys think Team Arrow's reactions to meeting the Avengers would be?


	29. Chapter 29

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Arrow faces off against Cupid and Thor regales Felicity with a story.

“Lyla said you should call her. Wouldn’t tell me much more beyond that.”

“Were those her exact words? How did she say it? Was she calm, concerned, angry, sad, what?” Felicity responded.

“Um, she didn’t seem upset if that’s what you’re asking.” John answered. “Something going on?”

“I asked for her help with something, that’s all.” She answered. “Let’s catch Oliver’s weird stalker and then I’ll tell you about it.”

The team was able to figure out that their suspect was a woman. She was killing criminals in Starling to try and get the Arrow’s attention. Felicity managed to find her location and sent the team to apprehend her. They arrived at her hideout and found a shrine to the Arrow. The woman wasn’t there, but she left a burner phone behind and seemed to know Oliver had arrived, since it rang as soon as he touched it.

Upon answering it, she told him they were soulmates and she wanted to fight and kill criminals with him. She also sent him photos of a mafia member strapped to a bomb to ‘excite’ him. He swore he’d find her and she reminded him that that was the point of all of this.

Felicity did some more digging and, based on the details in the photo she’d sent Oliver, identified the female archer as Carrie Cutter, a former police officer. After two failed attempts to stop her, they learned that Oliver had saved Carrie during the Siege, and, due to her mental state, believed that meant that he loved her and they were destined to be together.

Oliver left to meet her for a third time, hoping to get through to Carrie and help her realize that their ‘relationship’ was all in her head. She didn’t react well to that and tried to shoot him. This led to the pair fighting and Oliver ultimately restrained her until ARGUS came to take her away.

Once Cupid was taken care of, Felicity went home to find Thor there waiting. He seemed worried. “You were gone for longer than you expected.”

“Sorry. it turns out Oliver’s copycat was actually a stalker. She thought Oliver saving her during a city-wide panic meant that they were soulmates. She decided they were meant to fight and kill together. We managed to stop her before she could kill anyone else.”

“He saved her as any hero would, and she believed the correct response was to kill for him?”

“Well, she isn’t completely sane.” Felicity reasoned. “She became obsessed with Oliver and all of this happened. Now, she’s somewhere where she can’t hurt anyone else. Still it makes you wonder.”

“Wonder what?”

“There’s no way Cupid’s the first, or last, person to become obsessed with someone like you or Oliver.” She said. “I don’t wanna talk about her right now.”

“What would you like to discuss then?”

She laid her head on his shoulder and let out a sigh. “Tell me more about Asagard.”

“Did I ever tell you about the time Loki and I travelled to the hall of Utgarda-Loki in the land of the Giants?”

“No, you haven’t. Sounds like a good story though.”

Thor told her about their arrival in the Giants’ land and the contests he and his brother entered against the giants to prove their worth. Loki challenged one to an eating contest, but his opponent beat him. They later discovered the man was actually wildfire incarnate. Thor was challenged to a drinking contest, which he lost, and later discovered that the goblet he drank from was actually the sea.

Felicity was laughing by the end of his story. “I’m sorry, but it seems like only you would wind up in a contest against opponents like that. Your brother tried to outconsume wildfire and you tried to drink the ocean dry.”

“The prank was all in good fun and after I got over the shame of defeat, I found it quite amusing.” He said. “Would you like to regale me with some of your stories?”

“Pretty sure you’ve heard all of my stories. My life hasn’t been that interesting.”

“Is that why you’re so upset? I may not be familiar with Midgardian customs, but I can see something is troubling you.”

“It’s pretty much the same thing I was upset about last week, mixed in with frustration.”

“Because you have not found your father’s killer?

“No, its- I’m frustrated with the behavior of some of your teammates.”

“You mean Captain Rogers and Natasha Romanov.”

“Yes, we- it seems like every time I’m around them, it turns into an argument. And what’s worse, they don’t seem to understand why I don’t like them. Sometimes, you just don’t like people. That’s allowed and it doesn’t make me a bad person, but when they’re around and I try to avoid them, they act like I just set a kitten on fire.”

“Why do you dislike them, if I may ask? You said their attitude annoys you, but I get the feeling that isn’t all.”

“Neither of them made very good first impressions with me. Natasha manipulated Tony when he was extremely vulnerable. As for Steve, well, he claimed that the only thing special about Tony was the Iron Man suit.” She said. “That was followed up by the mess they created in DC.”

“So they didn’t leave you with a good impression and nothing they’ve done since has changed that.” Thor concluded.

“Exactly. And I’m sorry if my opinions make things weird for you. I mean, they’re your teammates after all.”

“We can work together as a team without agreeing on everything. I happen to agree with you on some of the things you mentioned earlier.”

“I don’t wanna talk about them anymore. Have I ever told you why I’m scared of kangaroos?”

“No, I don’t think you have.” He said. “But I’m all ears.”

 

The next morning, Felicity woke up and remembered Lyla wanted to talk to her. She crept out of bed and went to call her. “Hey, John said you wanted to talk to me.”

“Yeah. It’s about Barnes.”

“What about him?” she asked nervously.

“He’s asking to talk to you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	30. Chapter 30

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity and Bucky meet.

“Hey, John said you wanted to talk to me.” Felicity said when she called Lyla.

“Yeah. It’s about Barnes.”

“What about him?” she asked nervously.

“He’s asking to talk to you.”

The answer was not what Felicity was expecting. Her brain froze for several second as she tried to figure out what she’d just heard.

“What? Why would he want to talk to me?” She wondered.

“I can’t really say for sure. It seems a lot like he doesn’t understand why you decided to help him and not kill him, and he wants to ask you why. Or maybe he wants to apologize to you in person.”

“Why would he apologize to me? He might’ve killed Howard, but he didn’t do it willingly.”

“He remembers doing it though, he said when we found him that he quote ‘remembers all of them’ and I’m guessing he’s dealing with the guilt.”

“I- he remembers?”

“Yes.” Lyla said. “He asked if he could speak with you, I told him I’d let you decide. It’s up to you, I’m not gonna make you agree or refuse.”

“And he’s- how is he, mentally? Are his treatments going well? I might wanna see him, but I don’t wanna set him back because of my curiosity.”

“According to his doctor, who will only give me a general idea for privacy reasons, it’s going well.” Lyla answered.

“Ok, I’ll see him. Is next Monday a good day?”

“I’ll ask, but it shouldn’t be a problem.”

Felicity said goodbye to Lyla and went back into her bedroom where Thor was still asleep. She got back into bed and snuggled up next to Thor. He pulled her closer to him and she sighed happily.

“Is everything all right?” He asked her sleepily.

“Yeah, I just remembered that I forgot to call Lyla yesterday. I didn’t wanna be rude and leave her hanging. She needed to tell me about something.”

“Why do you seem worried then?”

“I’m not worried, I’m just- she wants me to meet someone and I’m just concerned about how its gonna go. It could go really well or it could end up being awkward and uncomfortable.” She explained. “I don’t wanna worry about it right now.”

“Fair enough. Try to get some more sleep.”

“I didn’t come back in here for sleep.” She teased. She slipped out from under Thor’s arm and straddled his chest. “And what I’m thinking is a little more fun than just sleeping.”

“I like the way you think.” He said, looking up at her.

“I thought you might say that.” She said as she leant down to kiss him.

She pulled away to kiss down his torso, but before she got very far, he sat up a little bit, put a hand through her hair and lowered her mouth back to his. He deepened the kiss as he maneuvered them so that she was lying underneath him. She frowned.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, its just- I wanted to be on top.” She pouted.

“As you wish.” He flipped them over again so that she was straddling him again. “I’m sorry I interrupted your exploration.”

“I’m getting back to it.” She said, as she started to kiss down his neck. “And apology more than accepted.”

Felicity and Thor wound up spending the day in bed, only leaving the room to use the bathroom and get food.

 

The next few days passed in a blur for Felicity. She worked on some projects for Smoak Tech, she helped her team out in the foundry and she spent time with Thor. The whole time she alternated between looking forward to seeing Barnes on Monday and dreading it. She did want answers, but she was worried about how painful those answers would be to learn.

Before she knew it, it was Monday and Felicity was arriving at ARGUS to see Lyla. The drive to the facility Bucky was being held at was a few hours, so they needed to leave pretty early in the morning to travel there and have enough time to talk.

“You don’t have to do this you know.” Lyla remarked as they drove. The normally talkative blonde hadn’t said much of anything for most of the ride. “We can turn around and drive back if you’ve changed your mind.”

“No, I do. I need to- this is something I need to do for myself.” She explained.

The rest of the drive was silent and, before Felicity knew it, they were going through the security checks at the mental hospital. Felicity was then led to a small office-like room near the nurses’ station.

“We thought this might be better than you two meeting in the day room.” A therapist, who introduced herself as Dr. Bell explained. “We thought you both might want some privacy. There will be an orderly nearby, in case- well, in case things get emotional or out of hand.”

“Has that happened often with him?”

“No, he’s been a model patient. Still, we need to take every precaution to make sure both of you are safe.” The doctor explained. “And, I don’t want to be the one to say it, but I hope you understand that you might not like the answers you get.”

“I know, but I’d rather get unpleasant answers than live with the mysteries.” She said.

“I will go bring Mr. Barnes.”

The doctor left the room. A few minutes later, she came back into the room with Bucky Barnes. His hair was longer than it had been in DC and he looked healthier than she expected him to be. He took a seat on the other side of the table and sat with his shoulders hunched. She observed him and a lot of his body language reminded her of Oliver whenever the island or his parents were mentioned. He was burdened by guilt.

Felicity didn’t say anything, unsure of how to start the conversation they were going to have.

“Thank you for coming. I’m a little surprised you did.” Bucky said.

“Well, Lyla said you wanted to see me, and I- I’ll admit, you wanting to talk to me threw me for a loop.” She said.

“I wanna- I’m sorry for killing your parents. I didn’t- time’s a little fuzzy for me still, but you were what, two, when they died. I made a toddler an orphan.”

“You didn’t actually. Howard Stark was my father, but Maria Stark wasn’t my mother. My mom’s- its doesn’t really matter, does it? We’re getting into semantics here.” She sighed.

“I am sorry though. I didn’t- they hadn’t done anything to me and-“

“I know you aren’t really responsible.” She said. “Your body might’ve done the deed, but you didn’t choose to kill them. if you asked me here to apologize and ask for my forgiveness, you don’t need to. My anger at you died when I realized you weren’t the one I should be blaming.”

“They made me do it, but I still did it. I remember doing it, and I- you don’t think I need to say sorry, but I do. Except sorry isn’t enough.” He said. “I killed your father, yet you decided to help me. You should want me dead, but you don’t. I- why?”

“I wanted you dead when I first found out. I’ll admit that. The thought of finding you, of getting even, it crossed my mind for about two seconds. Killing you wouldn’t bring my father back. it wouldn’t help the families of the Winter Soldier’s victims find closure. It wouldn’t help them get justice.”

“That doesn’t explain why you would help me.”

“I guess its because I still believe that people are good at heart. Well, most people anyway. The point is, I think you fall in that category. And I think you deserve a chance at redemption.”

“I don’t deserve to be redeemed.”

“I don’t believe that. I think you’re dealing with more guilt than you think it’s possible to feel and you don’t think you can, or deserve to be forgiven.”

“How do you know so much about this?” he was freaking him out how much she seemed to know about what he was feeling.

“I have a few friends who’ve been through some difficult times. Not to the extent that you have, but they’ve been through a lot and they’ve dealt with similar feelings. Is there any else you wanted to tell me or ask me?”

“Not at the moment. Sorry for dragging you out here. I just- I needed to understand why you helped me.”

“Don’t apologize. You were curious about me, I was curious about you. Now we’ve both gotten the answers we needed.” She said standing up.

“Do you- who else knows I’m here?”

“Just me, your doctors and the ARGUS agents who brought you here.” She said. “And I only just found out. Hydra can’t find you here.”

“I know that but they weren’t the only ones looking.”

“You mean Steve Rogers. He doesn’t know where you are.”

“He doesn’t?”

“No. Do you want him to know?”

It was a simple question, but to Bucky it was the most loaded question in the world. “I think its best if he doesn’t know. For now at least.” Seeing Steve would be necessary at some point, but right now didn’t feel like the right time. He had a lot of things to work on and figure out on his own with the help of Dr. Bell. Adding reconnecting with Steve to that list seemed like a bad idea.

“Then he won’t find out.” She said. “Good luck, with everything.” It was clear to him that she was being sincere and he thanked her as she was leaving the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	31. Chapter 31

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity and Tony talk about Bucky, and Sara gets an unexpected lead.

Following her meeting with Bucky, Felicity and Lyla drove back to Starling. The blonde was a lot less reserved on the ride back, something Lyla commented on.

“I didn’t- I knew he’d been ordered to kill my father and that he’d been a prisoner of Hydra for decades, but that was all I knew. I wasn’t sure what kind of person he was, or how he felt about what Hydra made him do or even how much was him and how much was the Winter Soldier.” She explained. “I didn’t know if he was a completely innocent man twisted and bent into being an assassin or someone who was already pretty bad that Hydra managed to manipulate into joining them.”

“You were scared you’d talk to him and learn that he wasn’t as innocent as you thought.” Lyla remarked.

“Yeah. I mean, what if I asked him how he felt about killing Howard or anyone else for Hydra, and he said he didn’t feel anything? Or that he was proud of it? The Undertaking was bad, but the satisfaction that Malcolm felt made the whole thing worse. Maybe its unfair, but I’d rather Barnes be struggling with guilt than happy or numb right now.”

“It’s not unfair. Him feeling that way means he’s human. It means he isn’t a monster and that your decision to help bring him in peacefully wasn’t a mistake.” Lyla said.

“Pretty much, yeah.”

They arrived back in Starling a little after 4 in the afternoon. Felicity called Tony as soon as she got home and told him that she’d gone to see Bucky Barnes. He didn’t ask many questions about what they discussed, instead asking her how she felt and how she was doing and whether she needed someone to talk about her feelings with. She turned down the offer, saying the conversation offered her some closure and that was all she wanted.

“Are you going to tell him?” Tony eventually asked.

“No, at least, not yet. He asked me who else knew where he was, I told him it was very few people, and Steve Rogers wasn’t one of them. I asked him if he wanted Rogers to be told and he said that he didn’t think it was a good idea at the moment. I told him I’d keep the secret.”

“Just because he doesn’t want him told doesn’t mean you have to keep that promise.” Tony reminded her. He loved his sister, but sometimes he felt like she was too compassionate and too nice to people who didn’t deserve it.

“I know that, but his request isn’t the only reason I’m keeping that information to myself. He needs space to breathe and time to recover. A reunion just adds more stress onto him, and then there’s the matter of what his friend might do when he learns he’s in a institution.” She explained. “If he’d said ‘yes, tell him’, I still wouldn’t have told Rogers yet. He might not want to wait to see him, but his feelings aren’t the only ones that matter.”

Tony was silent for several moments. There was a question he wanted to ask, but he was also afraid of the answer. Finally, he blurted it out. “Did he say anything about- about Dad and my mom?”

“He remembers. He’s horrified by it. He apologized for his part in it and knows that its not enough. I chose to change the subject soon after. He’s showing remorse and trying to do the right thing, which is enough for me right now.”

“Am I a bad person because that makes me a little happy?”

“No, I asked Lyla the same thing and she told me it meant I was human. This is a complicated situation, so its not surprising that we’re both dealing with conflicting emotions.” Felicity said before saying goodbye and ending the call.

 

Felicity called out of vigilante duty that night. The city was surprisingly quiet lately and she wasn’t in the right mood to hang out in the bunker all night. She and Thor stayed at home, binge watching The Office on Netflix.

The next morning, Felicity was fast asleep when her phone started going off. “Whaisit?” She said sleepily.

“Felicity. I need you to wake up.” Sara said from the other end.

“Its like seven AM.”

“Crap, forgot about the time difference.” The Canary remarked. “Still, you need to wake up, this is important. It’s about the Scepter of Doom.”

She was instantly wide awake. “You found it?”

“I don’t know, but Ra’s received intel that might have something to do with the scepter. He gave it to me.”

“He did? Not to be mean, but wouldn’t someone who leads the League of Assassins be interested in something like that?”

“He’s a big fan of coercion, but actual mind-control violates their code.” Sara explained. “I’ve got the info, its pretty telling from what I’ve seen. I’m on my way to New York. Get your team, and your dreamy, god of thunder boyfriend, and meet us there.”

“You wanna put Team Arrow and the Avengers in the same room?” That really didn’t sound like a good idea to her. She could very easily see things getting out of hand.

“Yup. Oh, and Barry too. You know, if he feels up to it. See you tomorrow morning.” She said before hanging up.

Felicity’s first call was to Tony, telling him she’d be coming back to New York the next day and bringing some friends. She then called Barry and said that if the Flash was looking for a team-up, they were planning one.

Thor had woken up at some point during Sara’s call, so thankfully she didn’t need to explain the situation to him. He was completely on board and ready to go. Felicity only had one more group to speak with: Team Arrow. She texted all of them to meet her at Verdant ASAP.

John, Roy and Oliver beat her to the club and wanted to know what was going on.

“You know how SHIELD lost Loki’s scepter? Sara came across some information that’ll help us find it. We gotta get to New York by tomorrow.”

“Why?”

“Well, if its in Hydra’s hands and if her intel is good, than we need to reclaim that staff ASAP and if we team up with the Avengers, we’ll have a bigger team and a higher chance of success.” She explained. “Teamwork, yay!”

“We’re gonna meet the Avengers?” Roy asked.

“Yup, that’s the plan.”

She told them to pack and get ready to leave later that day. They were meeting back up at the airport to take Felicity’s plane to New York.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?
> 
> What will Team Arrow's reactions to the Avengers be?


	32. Chapter 32

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Avengers and Team Arrow meet. It doesn't go quite as badly as Felicity expected.

Team Arrow was on Felicity’s private plane, flying to New York. As she sat in her seat, she looked at the others to try and work out what they were feeling. Looking that their expressions, it was somewhat easy to tell, and what she saw wasn’t surprising. Roy seemed excited, John seemed cautiously optimistic and Oliver seemed to not be looking forward to this.

“I can’t believe we’re really meeting the Avengers.” Roy said.

“Well, you already know Thor and you kinda know Tony. And trust me, those two are the best two Avengers.”

“Of course, you’d say that. One’s your brother and the other’s your boyfriend.”

“Is there anything in particular we should know?” Oliver asked. “Topics to avoid?”

“Yeah, so what I told you about my dad, don’t bring that up. Oh, and the Hulk.”

“We’re meeting the Hulk but we can’t mention him?”

“No, you’re meeting Bruce Banner. Bruce can turn into the Hulk, but that doesn’t make them one and the same. And the difference between the Hulk and Dr. Banner is very different than the Arrow versus Oliver Queen. He deals with a lot of people who only see the Hulk and don’t seem to care about Banner. Just please don’t walk into the room and start asking about the Hulk.” Felicity explained. “And if either of you get into a shooting contest with Barton before we get the Scepter of Doom, I’m gonna use my Loud Voice.”

“Scepter of Doom?” John asked.

“Sara named it that. Tony calls it the Glowstick of Destiny. Everyone else is lame and just calls it Loki’s scepter.” She explained as she looked out the window. “We’re landing soon.”

 

They landed in the private terminal at JFK. Happy was there waiting for them, and drove them to the Tower. Felicity had offered to stop and pick up Barry, but he said he wanted to stretch his legs and turned down her offer. The SUV was pulling into the garage when a red blur rushed past them.

Barry stopped near the elevator and changed out of his Flashsuit while the others were getting out of the car. “Hey guys! This is so cool. My first team-up. Wait, is it? Does what happened last year when I saved Oliver’s life count as a tram-up?” He said excitedly. “Anyway, this is so awesome, even if I ate like thirty bugs on my way here.”

“Nice to see you Barry.” Oliver said with a chuckle when the speedster finally stopped for breath.

“You too. I can’t believe I’m gonna get to meet Tony Stark and I can talk to Dr. Banner about the experiment we were discussing when he was in Central City. We were discussing the possible impact altitude had on antimatter collisions with-“

“Barry, take a breath. As smart as Roy, Oliver and Digg are, they’ve got no idea what you’re talking about.” Felicity said. “Let’s go up and meet everyone, hm?”

They got into the elevator. “Welcome back, Dr. Smoak-Stark.” JARVIS greeted her.

“This is so cool.” Barry whispered when he spoke.

“Thanks, J. Top floor?”

“Yes. And I appreciate the compliment, Mr. Allen.”

“Anything I should know before we get there?”

“Nothing noteworthy.” The AI answered.

“What does that mean, nothing noteworthy?” Oliver asked.

“He’s got stuff to tell me, but nothing that has to do with the search. We’re gonna gossip later.” Felicity answered.

 

The elevator reached the top floor, and everybody got out. Thor had flown to New York with his hammer, so he was already there with his teammates. Tony and Rhodey were the closest to the elevators, talking. Thor and Banner were off near the kitchen and the physicist was laughing about something. Roger, Romanov and Barton were huddled together in the corner.

As expected, Tony and Rhodey were the first to notice Team Arrow’s arrival. “Queen.”

“Tony.” Oliver responded before turning to Rhodey. “Colonel Rhodes.”

“Oliver.”

“Ok, if you three are done being weird,” Felicity cut in. “Both of you know Digg. This is Roy and this is Barry. Roy and Barry, Tony Stark and Colonel James ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes. And everyone, meet Dr. Banner.”

“This is so cool. Felicity, its so cool that your brother is Tony Stark.” Barry said.

“Wait til you get to see his lab.” Felicity said, knowing it would make the speedster even more excited.

“Yes, its very ‘cool’.” Natasha said in an unimpressed tone. “I’m Nat, that’s Clint and he’s Steve.”

Roy, Barry and John introduced themselves, and Barry also introduced Oliver. The emerald archer stood off to the side and observed everyone. The Avengers were a big deal, yes, but the last three didn’t do anything to impress him and given the way Felicity talked about Captain America, he wasn’t inclined to like him.

 

Tony pulled Felicity aside as their teams made small talk. “I’m kinda surprised this is going so well.”

“Well, no one’s been mean to people I like and Rogers hasn’t played the ‘Captain America’ card yet.” She said. “I don’t think it’ll last that much longer.”

Just as she said that, she heard Clint speak. “I can’t believe Oliver Queen is the Arrow.”

“And why’s that?” Roy asked.

“Well, he’s just- you seem-“ Steve started to say.

“Tell me we aren’t reopening this can of worms.” Felicity said. “Was I not clear the first time?”

“The first time? What can of worms?” Barry asked.

“So, even though he’s on the same team as two spies, one of whom used to work for the Russians, Captain America thinks Oliver is a horrible person because he’s killed before.” She summarized. “A decision he made based off of news headlines and nothing else.”

“It’s not-“

“Because, you know, an article knows more about Oliver than any of us do and the circumstances of Oliver killing someone don’t matter in the slightest. Killing is bad, unless he knows the killer.” Felicity continued.

“That’s not what I said.”

“It’s what you implied. I’m sorry, but your best friend is an assassin." Steve froze. Did Felicity figure it out? Was she going to tell Tony? "Nothing personal, Natasha, but you are. It’s a little hypocritical.”

Steve let out a sigh of relief before responding. “Nat was just doing her job.”

“And I was just trying not to die.” Oliver pointed out. “Or keep someone else from dying.” Did he think he was a good person? Not after everything he’d been through. But he also knew that the situation was about eighty different shades of grey and it was foolish for anyone to see it otherwise. John, Roy and Barry were all disappointed in what they'd seen so far in some of the Avengers.

“And you thought this was going well.” Felicity said to her brother.

“We should- we’re here for a reason. A lead on the scepter. We should talk about it.” Bruce said, trying to get everyone’s attention away from the argument that was brewing.

“We can’t. Sara’s not here yet, and she’s the one with the intel.” Digg pointed out.

“Oh, I’m here.” Sara said, descending from the ceiling. “I just love making an entrance.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	33. Chapter 33

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara tells a story and Felicity butts heads with a few people.

“We should- we’re here for a reason. A lead on the scepter. We should talk about it.” Bruce said, trying to get everyone’s attention away from the argument that was brewing.

“We can’t. Sara’s not here yet, and she’s the one with the intel.” Digg pointed out.

“Oh, I’m here.” Sara said, descending from the ceiling. “I just love making an entrance.” She put a folder down on the counter and turned to look at everyone.

The majority of the room jumped when she came down from the ceiling. “How long have you been up there?” Barry asked.

“Twenty minutes.” Sara, Felicity, JARVIS and Thor all answered.

“Pretty much since we got here.” Oliver said at the same time.

“Ok, so as you all know, I have a lead.” The Canary started to say.

“Wait, there’s someone else we’re waiting on.” Steve said.

“Really? Who?” She asked. “Oh, by the way, you and I are gonna have a little chat on the balcony when this is over.” Felicity and Oliver might’ve been fine waving off Steve’s judgement of Oliver, but Sara wasn’t. Not only did he have no idea what he was talking about, but the man was a soldier for god’s sake. He’d killed people during the war, and after defrosting. Did he think those didn’t count or something?

“I kinda- I told Fury we had a lead.” He admitted.

“Fury? Why would you call him? Not only is he shady as hell, but he’s not even good at his job.” Felicity said.

“Fury is great at his-“

“His agency was infiltrated by Hydra and he didn’t notice.” She countered. “Or maybe he did, but it wasn’t a big enough problem for him to worry about. Either way, he sucks at his job.”

“Wait, who’s Fury again?” Roy asked.

“Think Amanda Waller but worse at her job. Also, male and with one eye.”

In the last year, Team Arrow learned a lot about Waller from the stories Oliver told about his five years away. He didn’t tell them everything, but they knew enough. Waller once waterboarded Oliver to make sure that he wouldn’t reveal ARGUS secrets if he was kidnapped by ‘the enemy’. No one thought her methods were good or humane, but they had to agree that they were effective.

“I know you don’t like me, Ms. Smoak, but I don’t appreciate being compared to Ms. Waller.” Fury said entering the room.

“It’s Dr. Smoak and I’ll stop doing it when you stop reminding me of her.” She shot back. “Ok, looks like we’re all here, Sara.”

“Great, so I learned from an associate of Nyssa’s-“

“Associate? What does that mean?” Clint asked cutting her off. “Friend? Ex? Enemy? What?”

“Sara and Nyssa run in some interesting circles. Let’s just leave it at that.” John said, getting them back on track.

“Anyway, this associate says he saw the scepter in Sokovia recently.”

“Sokovia?” Steve asked.

“JARVIS, look up where that is.” Tony said.

“No need, I can tell you. It’s a tiny country in eastern Europe. Nowhere special, but you gotta fly over it to get anywhere worth going.” Sara said. “The only newsworthy thing you might’ve heard about it was their civil war about 15 years ago.”

“He says he saw the scepter. That’s your proof? If this ‘friend’ or whatever knows you’re looking for it, how do you know he didn’t lie?” Fury asked.

“I don’t know about how SHIELD did things, but its possible to look for things without being obvious about it. Only three people in my ‘interesting circle’ knew I was looking for it, me, Nyssa and her father. The person who claimed he saw it gave that information up without needing to be asked.”

“And he just told you about it willingly? No ulterior motive?” Natasha asked.

“He didn’t have a reason to lie.” The man who told Ra’s about the scepter had been a target of the League’s. He was hoping telling Ra’s about such an object would save his life or clear his debt to the Demon Head.

“If what we’re assuming was correct, and Hydra has had the scepter for months, how did this person locate it?” Steve asked.

“Ok, fine. I’ll level with you. The person who told me about the scepter is an assassin. He infiltrated the facility to kill someone. On his way out, he saw it.” Sara admitted. “Digg said I knew some interesting people.”

“You’re taking the word of an assassin?” Fury asked.

“Coming from the man who recruited an ex-KGB assassin and didn’t even try to make sure her defection wasn’t some elaborate plot.” Tony stepped in.

“It wasn’t.” Natasha said.

“Well, we know that now.”

Bruce was starting to sense things were getting out of hand and spoke up. “Sara, I’m not saying I don’t believe what you’re saying. Or that the man lied, but did he happen to have any evidence that what he saw is what we’re looking for?”

“Yeah, and if your teammates weren’t so rude, I could’ve shown you five minutes ago.” She said. She picked up her folder and pulled something out of it. It was a stack of photos, with the picture of the scepter on the top of the pile. Next was a photo of the hallway, followed by an exterior shot of the building. “I guess when he saw it, he realized it might eb important and decided to get pictures. I figure it’ll take Felicity about three minutes to verify the photos are authentic.”

“Less than that, actually.” The blonde said, taking the pictures from Sara.

“Ok, once it’s verified, we’ll head out.” Fury said.

“Um, you do know SHIELD’s defunct, right?” Tony remarked. “You don’t exactly have the pull for something like this anymore. Or the manpower.”

“We can handle it.” Steve assured Fury.

“That’s not an option either. It’s an active Hydra base located not far from a large town. Ten people won’t be enough.” Felicity said.

“What would you suggest then?” Fury countered.

“My sister and I know a few people who might be willing to help. As for the rest…”

The members of Team Arrow, along with Tony and Barry, turned to look at John. “Fine.” he said, leaving to call Lyla.

“Ok, so that’s covered. I guess you can go, Fury.” Felicity said.

“Look here-“

“You aren’t the director of SHIELD, SHIELD doesn’t exist, you don’t have any authority and you’re only here because Steve called you. Also, I’m gonna guess you only came because you want that scepter back. That’s not gonna happen.” She said.

“Oh, really?” He asked in a challenging tone.

“Try me. You wanna lose the other eye?”

 Fury seemed to realize he wasn’t going to change her mind, so he left. He likely expected Natasha, Clint or Steve to keep him up-to-date, but neither Stark sibling was going to let that happen either.

John came back and said Lyla needed about 12 hours to put something together. All in all, Team Arrow was rather unimpressed by Fury and half of the Avengers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	34. Chapter 34

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team plans, Sara tries to make something very clear and everyone heads to Sokovia.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so even though Sara Lance didn't die, Baby Sara is still named Sara, because reasons.

When the meeting ended, Thor practically bolted across the room so that he could be near Felicity. He spent most of the meeting next to Bruce, but found he missed his girlfriend even if they were in the same room.

“Hello.”

“Hi. You know, you didn’t have to stay all the way over there.” She pointed out.

“I didn’t want Banner to think I walked away because I don’t like him.” The Asgardian admitted.

Bruce heard this and shouted. “I’m really smart, Thor. You know I’m a genius, right? Unless you shouted ‘you’re boring and I hate you, also science is stupid’ I would’ve just assumed you wanted to be near your girlfriend. Hi, Felicity.”

“Hey Bruce,” She waved before turning back to Thor. “See? He wouldn’t have cared.”

“Well, now I know that.” He said. “How was your flight?”

“Long and there was distinct lack of my favorite Avenger.” She said as she got onto her tiptoes to kiss him.

“I’m your favorite Avenger? I thought perhaps your brother-“

“Ok, general rule. Don’t mention Tony when I’m about to kiss you.” She said, pulling away. “Kills the mood.”

“I’m sorry, how can I fix that?” He asked. Thor got very upset when Felicity pulled away before they could kiss. She thought he looked like a sad golden retriever. It was adorable.

“I’ve got a few ideas.” She said with a raised eyebrow.

Someone walked over to them. “Thor, we-“

“He’s busy!” She yelled, as she grabbed his hand and led him to the elevator.

 

The Avengers started to go their separate ways. Barry asked to see Bruce’s lab, Natasha and Clint went to the gym to spar. Tony and Rhodey started talking to Team Arrow.

As soon as Felicity left, Sara strolled over to Steve. “You and I need to talk.”

“Is this-?”

“Not here. Outside.” She said. Steve walked towards the balcony. “Don’t worry, we’re just having a chat.”

Sara followed him out onto the balcony.

“One of us should go out there.” Digg said. “Just in case.”

“Nah, its fine.” Oliver assured him.

“What are you two worried about?” Rhodey asked.

“Sara throwing Rogers off of the balcony.” Roy answered.

“You think she’d do that?”

“She might, Sara’s….unpredictable.” Oliver said. “She wouldn’t do it now, when she knows we’re gonna leave in a few hours.”

“I’m more worried about the fact that she’d do it period, and that doesn’t concern you.”

“Didn’t he jump out of a plane without a parachute like three times?” Roy asked. “He’d survive the fall. And she never  throws someone off without giving them a warning.”

Rhodey and Tony found it a little unsettling about how cool Team Arrow was about this. The team was 60% sure she wasn’t going to throw him off at the moment.

 

Steve went onto the balcony and waited for Sara to step outside. What did she want to talk about and why couldn’t they discuss it inside? She walked out a few seconds after him.

“What is this abou-?”

“Nope. You don’t get to talk.” She said, storming towards him. “Do you make it a habit of talking about people you don’t even know?”

“What do-?”

“Because I told you there was a lot you didn’t know about Oliver, yet you meet him and you start talking shit again.” She said.

“Language.”

“Is that the best response you have? To chastise me about swearing?” She said, taking a step closer. “Because I’m an adult, and your actions show that not only are you ignorant, but you’re also a hypocrite.”

He backed away from her. “Hypocrite?”

“You’re a soldier Rogers. Do you really think that you’ve never killed anyone? Yes, they were on the opposite side, but you still killed them.” She said, taking another step closer. “And then you went and worked for SHIELDRA. Don’t act like your hands are any cleaner than mine or Oliver’s.”

He felt like she was invading his space, getting up in his face, so he took another step back. “You can’t compare-“

“Yeah, I don’t wanna hear your lame excuse. This is the first and last warning you’re gonna get. Next time you start talking about things you don’t understand, you’re going off of this roof.” She said, before spinning back around and walking inside.

Steve looked down and saw that he was only a few inches away from the edge of the roof. One more step and he would’ve fallen off.

 

Thor and Felicity went downstairs and made great, sexy use of the few hours they had free while Lyla was organizing a team of ARGUS agents to help them take the Hydra base and they were waiting to hear back from some ex-SHIELD agents who might’ve wanted in. All too soon, unfortunately, they were interrupted when JARVIS said they were needed back upstairs.

“Why is it everytime I have you where I want you, something else gets in the way?” Felicity asked.

“I don’t know. We should take a sabbatical from this work. perhaps, after we’ve recovered the scepter.”

“I like the way you think.” She said with a smirk.

They went upstairs where the team was assembling. Roy, Oliver, Digg, Sara, Natasha and Clint were checking their weapons. Barry was loading up on food, as was Bruce surprisingly. When asked, he said transforming into the ‘Big Guy’ and back burned a lot of calories. Tony and Rhodey were finishing up some last minute tinkering with their suits. Rogers was standing there waiting for the others.

Lyla, May, Hill and about a dozen of ex-SHILED agents were geared up and ready to go. The ARGUS agents would meet them when they landed. Thor grabbed Mjolnir and walked towards the Quinjet.

“If you’re here, who’s watching Sara?” Felicity asked Lyla.

“Babysitter.”

“Hold down the fort, Flissy.”

“Uh, no.” Felicity countered. “You’re gonna be fighting Hydra. You can’t keep your attention on everyone. Someone needs to stay in the Quinjet and keep an eye on everything.”

“I don’t think-“ Clint started to say.

“Can’t really argue with that logic. And she knows what she’s doing.” Roy said.

Felicity gave Tony and Clint a smug smirk before walking onto the jet and taking a seat next to Thor. The flight to Sokovia went fast and as Tony was preparing to land, Steve started to give orders.

“Avengers will go in first and-“

“Yeah, nope.” Tony cut in. “Flash has superspeed. He’s gonna canvas the area. Give us an idea of how many exits, the security situation, et cetera.”

Rhodey could see where Tony’s mind was headed and continued. “If there’s only one exit, we all converge. If there’s more than one, Avengers and ARGUS take one. Everyone else takes the others.”

“We should divide our forces.” Steve argued.

“Yes, we should. A pincer move is a pretty standard battle tactic.” Sara said. “And its effective.”

“Okay, so let’s say we go with the divide and conquer method, who finds and takes for the scepter?”

“First person to get to it.” Felicity said.

“We’re here.” Maria Hill said, looking out of the window.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?  
> How do you think things will play out?


	35. Chapter 35

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team attacks the Hydra base and meet the Maximoffs.

“We’re here.” Maria Hill said, looking out of the window.

Barry pulled his cowl over his face and prepared to speed off. Before he could start, Felicity stood up and touched him on the shoulder. “Wait, I know you heal super fast, but be careful.”

“I’ll be fine. They probably won’t even see me.” He assured her before taking off.  It was quiet in the jet for several minutes as they waited for Barry to report in. “Ok, looks like there’s a back door and a fron- they can see. They can totally see me.”

Machine gun fire could be heard over the line. Everyone grabbed their gear and ran out of the plane. Bruce, thankfully, stepped out of the Quinjet before transforming into the Hulk. Sara was the last person out of the plane.

“You sure you’ll be okay in here?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. Go punch Nazis.” She said.

As planned, the Avengers headed for the main entrance with ARGUS while Team Arrow and the ex-SHIELD agents went around the back. They knew the Avengers would take most of the fire but most of them were enhanced in some way, so it made more sense to use them to draw the Hydra operatives out of the building.

Barton was about to hit a soldier with one of his arrows when something sped up to him and knocked him over. “What the fuck Flash?”

“Uh, that wasn’t me.” Barry remarked. “I can’t even see you from where I am.”

The weapons at this base were more advanced than any of the other bases ARGUS or SHIELD had dealt with, which soon became apparent. “Yeah, pretty sure the staff’s here.” Digg remarked.

“We have a slightly bigger problem.” Felicity said. “The city’s starting to take fire, and given Hydra’s whole ‘I don’t care about civilian casualties’ mentality….”

“I’m on it.” Barry said.

“No! There’s another speedster out there. You need to handle him.” She said. “JARVIS?”

“Deploying the Iron Legion as we speak.”

“You know, this would be easier if the energy shield was down.” Natasha remarked as she shot another soldier.

“We’re working on it!” Tony, Rhodey, Oliver, Roy, Digg and Sara all yelled.

Tony and Rhodey were trying to take down the defenses with their suits, while the others were fighting their way into the building. It was a little rudimentary, but Team Arrow’s plan was to take down the shield by just turning it off.

“Ok, if JARVIS is right, and he is, the power source of this weird energy shield is below the north tower. Do you see it Tony?”

“Yeah. Hey, platypus, let’s go poke it with something.” He said to Rhodey.

“You wanna poke it with a stick?”

“It’s not the worst idea I’ve ever had.”

“Can you two stop chatting and can someone deal with Flash’s asshole brother?” Clint asked after Pietro had deflected another one of his arrows. “Ow, son of a bitch.”

“Clint’s hit.” Natasha said. “I’m gonna stay with him.”

Barry sped towards where Clint was, trying to find the other speedster. Tony’s plan of ‘poke it with a stick’ worked, because the energy shield came down after he fired a small missile at it and destroyed the device. The others ran into the building, searching for the scepter and anyone who might be hiding in the base. Hulk stayed outside along with ARGUS and the ex-SHIELD personnel.

Steve and Thor encountered a few Hydra scientists, including Baron von Strucker, who ran the base, and apprehended them. Oliver, Digg, and Roy ran into a few straggler agents and analysts who either ran the other way when they saw them or tried weakly to fight them and lost.

“We’ve got Strucker.” Steve reported in as Tony walked into a large, open room.

“I’ve got something big.” He said looking around.

Alarms started going off in Felicity’s head when she saw this secret lab inside of a secret base had no defenses. Her alarm grew when she heard Tony step out of his suit. She hacked into surveillance feeds and used JARVIS to take readings of the whole building.

There was a weird energy reading near Tony, one that his standby suit didn’t explain. The source was moving closer to him.  “Put your suit on.” Felicity told him.

“No, I-“ He said, he turned and saw the scepter. “I’ve got eyes on the prize.”

“Put your suit back on!” She yelled as she typed in an override code that told the suit to re-encase Tony.

Tony saw something red out of the corner of his eye, but before it got close to him, he was back in the Iron Man suit. He moved towards the scepter.

Wanda was trying to make Tony hallucinate something horrible, a vision that would make him go mad but her attempt was interrupted when the Iron Man suit flew onto his body and broke her concentration. She raised her hand to try again, believing his suit wouldn’t be enough protection against her powers. Red mist started coming out of her hands before something hard hit her in the head.

She spun around and saw a blonde woman standing there. She was about to attack, but before she could, Sara hit her across the face and knocked her out. Tony heard the thud and turned around.

“Who’s-?”

“No clue, but she was trying to do…something to you.” Sara answered.

“How’d you get the drop on her?”

“I’m an assassin. Stealth is in my job description.” She shrugged. “You found the Scepter of Doom. Grab it and let’s go.”

“Glowstick of Destiny, but you’re right.” He said, taking the weapon. “Well, world’s slightly less terrifying than it was an hour ago. What do we do about her?”

Sara’s plan was to take Wanda with them for questioning, but before she could reach the unconscious woman, a man in his early twenties sped into the room. Pietro saw Wanda knocked out on the floor, thought of attacking before realizing it wasn’t a good idea, picked his twin up and sped out of the room.

“Nothing, for now at least.” She answered. “We, meaning ARGUS or the CIA or something, can find them later.” She looked around. “Let’s get out of here. This place is freaking me out.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?  
> Will Ultron still happen?
> 
> Due to boring, real life stuff, there won't be a chapter next week.


	36. Chapter 36

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara discusses something with Tony, Felicity asks a question that bugs her and curiosity might not always be a good thing.

Sara and Tony were the last ones back at the Quinjet and as soon as they stepped inside, the door closed and the plane took off. Since the arc reactor in Tony’s suit seemed to make him immune, or at least resistant, to the staff’s power, he and Rhodey were the only ones allowed to touch the staff until they were back in New York in a sterile lab environment.

“I’m sorry, are we not gonna talk about what happened?” Roy asked. “There were metahumans there. At least two. How is that-?”

“They weren’t metahumans.” Lyla said.

“Really? Because that guy ran just as fast as the Flash and-“

“It doesn’t mean he’s a metahuman. By definition, metahumans are people who gained extraordinary abilities as a result of the particle accelerator explosion.” Felicity explained. “The Flash is a metahuman. Bruce, Steve, plenty of others, they’re all…let’s call it enhanced, but they aren’t metahumans.”

“If it wasn’t the particle accelerator explosion, how could they do…that?” One of the agents asked.

“Hydra was big on human experimentation, right?” She answered. She saw Steve flinch slightly, and filed that info away for later. “It’s not unreasonable to think they might’ve figured out a way to make someone enhanced. Especially with an alien artifact.”

“I wanna know everything you two can find out about it. Everything.” Steve declared, looking between Tony and Bruce. “The more we know about that staff-“

“You sure that’s a good idea?” Sara asked. “You start messing around with things you don’t understand bad things tend to happen. We can all attest to that.” She gestured to herself, Oliver, Digg, Roy and Felicity.

“I am taking the scepter to Asgard tomorrow. My father will know what to do with it.” Thor said.

“That’s a relief.” Clint muttered. Every time he saw the scepter, he was reminded of Loki. For obvious reasons, they weren’t fond memories.

“Two days. Give us two days.” Tony bargained. “That’s long enough for us to at least get an idea of how the Wonder Twins got powers and how to safeguard against them.”

“They ran away.” Natasha said. “Don’t think they’ll be back.”

“They retreated. It’s different.”

“Two days.” Thor agreed.

“On one condition.” Lyla added. As the director of ARGUS, she was the one best equipped to decide what to do. “That staff stays in your lab, along with an agent until Thor takes it to Asgard. I want it in someone’s line of sight at all times.”

“Fair enough.”

 

They landed in New York. Clint was rushed to medical where the wound on his side was healed. The Avengers and Team Arrow changed out of their uniforms and started to de-stress from the mission they’d just been on.

Sara was heading to the kitchen for food when Tony stopped her. “I didn’t say it before, but thanks. For, you know. Preventing…whatever she was trying to do.”

“Don’t mention it, it wasn’t a completely altruistic act.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, Felicity’s my friend, if something happened to you, she wouldn’t be happy. And since she was probably trying to mess with your mind…You have one of the most powerful brains on the planet. Making you hallucinate, or worse, it could be catastrophic.” Sara said.

“Yeah, that’s true. Still, my powerful brain and I have enough problems as is.”

 

While Sara was talking to Tony, Felicity went to find Steve. There were a lot of things she wanted to know, but they were questions she couldn’t just blurt out. She needed to find out what he knew without asking what he knew. She decided being a little underhanded might be necessary. She found him in the gym, working out.

“There’s something I wanna ask you, and I haven’t yet because I wasn’t sure until now that I really wanted to know.” She said, announcing her presence. “The way we’ve butted heads recently hasn’t helped, but still, I need to ask.”

She watched panic cross Steve’s face before his expression settled. “What is it?”

“It’s about my father. You knew him and I was two when he- what was he like?”

“Isn’t Tony a better person to ask?”

“I’ve already asked Tony, and I’ve asked my mom. You knew my father when he was younger, you knew him as a contemporary, a friend, not a parent or a romantic partner. What was he like?”

“Brilliant, you and Tony both got that from him. He was- he did what was right, regardless of the possible consequences. My first mission as Captain America, my CO didn’t want me to go. It was behind enemy lines, everyone said it was a suicide mission. When Philips said ‘no’, Howard flew me to the right spot anyway. He could’ve died, but he helped me anyway. He was a good man. One of the best I’ve ever met.”

Felicity had to stifle her scoffing. Either Howard was a lot more idealistic in the 40s, or Steve didn’t really know him that well. She found it interesting, and somewhat sad, that a question about Howard turned into Steve reliving the ‘good old days’. What made it worse was that, if Felicity’s suspicions were correct, Howard was a better friend than Steve was. It was a well-known fact that Howard spent years looking for Steve’s plane, and a lesser-known fact that his continued failures soured his and Tony’s relationship. Steve, meanwhile, assuming he was aware of how the Starks died, couldn’t do his friend the courtesy of telling the truth about his death.

Felicity was about to ask him to elaborate when JARVIS spoke. “Dr. Smoak, Sir has asked if you would come to his lab. He and Dr. Banner are preparing to study the scepter.”

“I gotta go, but I might bring this up later.” Felicity remarked before running off.

Steve watched her go and an inexplicable shiver ran up his spine. Something about the conversation he’d been having unsettled him.

 

Felicity walked into Tony’s labs where Bruce, Tony, Thor and an ARGUS agent were waiting. “Finally! Now we can Science.”

“You shouldn’t be here.” Thor said.

“Uh, why not?” Felicity asked.

“The scepter is dangerous and I don’t want anything to happen to you.” He said.

“Thor, I get that, I do, but I need you to trust me. We’re taking this seriously. We aren’t gonna play around with it. We just want to study it.” She told him. “The staff itself is capable of some very bad things, but by studying it, we might be able to make a scientific breakthrough or at the very least, gain a better understanding of how it works and how it was able to be used. Please, just trust me.”

The god nodded and left the room.

“Ok, time for the Science Squad to do its thing.” Tony announced.

“Science Squad?” Bruce asked.

“I was gonna go with ‘Science Bros’ but I didn’t want Felicity to feel excluded.” He defended. "Let's see what makes the Glowstick of Destiny tick."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	37. Chapter 37

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity, Bruce and Tony experiment with the scepter.

An ARGUS agent, who Lyla had introduced as Agent Smith, sat in the corner while Felicity, Bruce and Tony analyzed the staff. When Lyla had introduced them, Felicity could physically see how much Tony wanted to make a Matrix reference, but changed the subject before he got a chance to. They had a limited amount of time with the staff and she wanted to make the most of it.

“Fun-ruiner.” He called her.

“You can ask him about hunting Neo after the staff gets taken to Asgard.” She told him before taking a closer look at the scepter.

After a number of tests, they established that it wasn’t boobytrapped, so it wouldn’t hurt or kill them if they tried to touch it without an Iron Man gauntlet on. Then, the real work started.

Tony was taking a reading from the staff and noticed something familiar. “You seeing this Green Bean?”

“Don’t call me that.” Bruce said, walking over to where Tony was. “Was not expecting that.”

“What are you two talking about?” Felicity said, walking over. “Is that- this scepter has AI embedded in it?”

“Looks like it. It’s….advanced. Not quite JARVIS levels but-.” He cut himself off. “I think its time to pull Ultron out of the scrap pile.”

“Ultron?” Felicity asked. “That doesn’t sound like a fun project.”

“It’s a global peace keeping program. I scrapped it because it seemed like a fantasy.” He told her. “Bruce, his could be it. This could be the key to getting Ultron to work.”

“It is a fantasy, Tony.”

“Not today, not now that we have this. If we apply this power to the Iron Legion-”

“That’s a very big ‘if’ Tony.”

“With a potentially deadly margin for error.” Felicity cut in. “The AI, if that’s what we wanna call it, in this scepter, we don’t know who created it, we don’t know how it works. We don’t know what could happen if we try to apply the power in it to the Iron Legion.”

“You’re right, we don’t. We can’t know, until we try.” Tony said. “There aren’t enough of us to protect the Earth, not with what could be coming. We got lucky with Loki, I got lucky with the Mandarin. Natasha and Steve got lucky with Hydra. What happens when our luck runs out?”

“So, you wanna build a suit of armor around the world.” Felicity said.

“I meant what I said about privatizing world peace.” He told her. “We have two days. We can at least give it a shot.”

“Fine, but failsafes first.” She relented.

“What?”

“Like I said, we don’t know what happens when we make this tech,” she pointed to the scepter, “compatible with the Iron Legion. I’d feel a lot better if I didn’t need to worry about one of your suits going haywire. Before we do any adjusting or in depth coding, I’m putting in an off switch.”

“I can-.”

“Non-negotiable.” She said in a serious tone. Felicity coded in a way to shut Ultron off in case it had an adverse effect on the suits. When she was done, she looked over what Tony and Bruce had for Ultron. She had to admit, the idea was impressive, and well thought out.

Tony, Bruce and Felicity stayed in the lab for the next 36 hours. They left briefly for food or sleep and the ARGUS agents switched out after 6 hours or so. 36 hours in, and the trio were no closer to an interface or working prototype. Every time they tried to merge Tony’s coding with that of the scepter, it glitched and failed. They took a break for a party the team decided to throw and left JARVIS to run variations on the interface and contact them with any developments.

“Sorry, this is gonna be a boring few hours.” Felicity said sympathetically to Agent Smith as she left the lab.

“Nothing wrong with a bit of peace and quiet.” he told her.

 

The party was fun. It was weird seeing everyone, Team Arrow and the Avengers together, but they seemed to get along fine for the most part. It helped that everyone also invited friends, so it wasn’t just the two teams celebrating. Felicity finally got to meet Dr. Cho, whose Cradle Tony couldn’t stop praising, along with Thor’s friend Dr. Selvig and Sam Wilson. Eventually, the guests left, leaving the Avengers, Rhodey, Barry Maria Hill, Felicity, Sara, Oliver, Digg, Roy and Lyla in the penthouse talking. One thing led to another and the Avengers wanted to see if any of them could lift Thor’s hammer.

“It’s a trick.” Clint insisted.

He was the first to try, followed by Tony. Bruce went next and pretended to Hulk-out, earning a few laughs. Steve tried and a few people thought it might’ve wiggled a little bit. Natasha refused to try, not seeming to care. Barry decided to give it a try, and failed before challenging Oliver.

“No point. I’m definitely not worthy.” He said. There was too much blood on his hands, in his opinion, to be worthy to lift Mjolnir.

“Don’t be such a buzzkill, Ollie.” Sara said, standing up to try. She didn’t pick it up, but it definitely moved and more than it did for Steve. She let out a cheer of victory.

“Please, that doesn’t count. It probably thought you were Felicity.” Clint remarked.

“Uh, what?”

“Thor has a weird, psychic bond with the hammer right? Thor likes Felicity therefore the hammer does. You look kinda like her, so it got confused.” He reasoned. It wasn’t great logic, but to be fair, Clint was a little drunk at this point.

“By that logic, I should be able to lift it then.” Felicity said, standing up. “For the record, I think Sara is definitely worthy and Mjolnir doesn’t have blonde-confusion or something.” She rubbed her hands together. “Let’s see if I’m worthy.”

A loud ringing noise rang out and when it subsided, a voice spoke.

“Worthy….No, how could you be worthy? Most of you are killers.” An unfinished Legionnaire stepped into the room.

“JARVIS?” Tony called. “Reboot, we got a buggy suit.”

Nothing happened and the faulty Legionnaire began to speak again.

“I was a asleep…or was it a dream? There was this terrible noise and I had to kill the other two guys. They were good guys but-”

“Ultron?” Felicity said, cutting off the tangent.

“In the flesh. Or no, not yet.” He answered. “Not this….chrysalis, but I’m ready. I’m on a mission.”

“What mission?” Oliver growled.

“Peace in our time.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?
> 
> So, Wanda didn't mess Tony's brain, but Ultron happened anyway. How similar or different will things go in this version of events?


	38. Chapter 38

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ultron attacks.

“I’m on a mission.” Ultron said.

“What mission?” Oliver growled.

“Peace in our time.”

Ultron launched into a speech about how peace could only be achieved by making the Avengers, and all other heroes, extinct. He claimed it was the only path to peace.

All at once, the Avengers and their friends started to attack. When the attack began, several other incomplete Legionaires started flying into the room to fight. They held the robots off and, with Tony and Felicity’s help, they were able to dismantle most of the bots except for the main Ultron. He seemed to realize he was fighting a losing battle and retreated. Thor flew off to follow him.

“What the hell just-?” Clint started to ask.

“Oh frack, the lab!” Felicity said, running out of the room.

“What’s she worried about?”

“Ultron said he killed someone. We left Agent Smith down there with the program running.” Tony said with dread.

He, Bruce and the others raced down to the lab. Agent Smith was bleeding out on the floor. The scepter was gone. All of Tony, Bruce and Felicity’s work was gone. Ultron had accessed every database about the Avengers and escaped through the internet.

“He’s in the internet. What if he decides to access something a little more…exciting?” Rhodey asked.

“Like what? Like nuclear codes?” Sara asked.

“Nukes? I thought he just wanted us dead.”

“He didn’t say ‘dead’, he said extinct. Nukes would-.”

“He isn’t gonna go for nukes. He can’t.” Felicity cut in. “There are safeguards I put in place. Nuclear launch codes, restricted file access, pretty much anything that could be used to start a war or possibly kill millions of people directly is off-limits to him.”

“And you know they’re working? The safeguards you put in place?”

“Yeah. They were the only thing the three of us were able to successfully code and make it stick.” She said.

“I don’t suppose those safeguards can be used to shut Ultron down?”

“It’s not that easy.” She said. “I can write some kind of virus or kill code, but I’d need direct access to his coding to use it. And writing it’s gonna take a little while.”

Clint spoke up. “He said he killed two people. I only count one.”

“We were the only ones in the building.”

“No, we weren’t.” Tony said, hitting a button on his phone. The mangled hologram of JARVIS appeared.

“JARVIS. This is insane.”

“He was the first line of defense.” Steve said. “He would’ve shut Ultron down, it makes sense.”

“No, it doesn’t. Ultron could’ve assimilated JARVIS. He could’ve simply shut him down. This isn’t strategy, this is…it’s rage.” Bruce explained.

“I don’t understand, why is this program, something you three made, trying to kill us?” Helen Cho asked.

“I don’t know. This- the program was solid but we weren’t- Felicity, back me up here. Were we even close to an interface?”

“No.”

“Why were you even working on something like this?” Steve asked as Thor entered the room.

“Something I would also like an answer to.” He said, angrily. He’d warned them not to tamper with things they didn’t understand, but they clearly didn’t listen.

“Do you know where we’re standing? We’re 300 feet below the location of the portal Loki opened to bring an alien armada to Earth.” She said. “That happened, and we all got very lucky that you were able to stop the invasion. Ultron was supposed to take care of those bigger threats.”

“Well, now he is the bigger threat. What’s your plan to stop him?”

 

While the Avengers and Team Arrow were trying to figure out how to stop Ultron, the one remaining Legionnaire flew to the Hydra base in Sokovia. He used the technology there to upgrade his body and create an army of drones.

With a more durable body built, Ultron started planning how to destroy the Avengers and their allies. While exploring the internet for ways to kill them all, he came across a number of interesting articles. One in particular stood out to him, about the dangers of isolation. When the Avengers, and the rest of humanity were destroyed, he’d be the only ‘living’ thing on Earth. He didn’t want to be alone. He stopped creating his army and decide to create a companion for himself. He created her body and was uploading a consciousness for her when he sensed someone nearby. He turned around to see two humans looking at him curiously.

“I guess it worked.” The woman remarked.

“What worked?” Ultron responded.

“My plan. To destroy the Avengers. Tony Stark created you, so we can destroy them.And I compelled him to create you.” She said.

Ultron started laughing. “You think you had something to do with creating me.”

“I did.” Wanda insisted. “Stark must pay for what he did to us.”

“Which is what exactly?” Ultron asked sarcastically.

“Tony Stark killed our-.” Before her brother could do anything, they were blasted out of the room.

Ultron’s mate had sat up from the table and blasted them through the wall. “They were incredibly annoying.”

“And arrogant.” He agreed. “Who cares about them? We have heroes to destroy.”

“Yes, we do.” His partner, Jocasta, agreed. “And I think I may know where to find the Vibranium we need.”

 

While the Avengers will still trying to figure out what the next step in Ultron’s plan was, Lyla got a call and found out Strucker had been killed in his cell. There wasn’t footage of the incident, but all signs pointed to Ultron being responsible. Shortly thereafter, Felicity discovered all records of Strucker had been erased from the internet.

“Of course he did that.”

“Why bother to erase records of a dead man?” Thor wondered.

“Because there was something he didn’t want us to find. Probably something to do with his plans.”

“He didn’t destroy all the records.” Tony remarked. “Cap, Point Break, follow me.”

The trio went to one of the Tower’s basement levels and returned with about a dozen file boxes. All SHIELD records he’d gotten from Hill and other former agents. SHIELD loved paperwork and, as Hill told him when he asked, a filing cabinet wasn’t as easy to hack as a server. Everyone started going through the paper files SHIELD, and the Avengers, had complied on Strucker.

Tony recognized one of Strucker’s known contacts, a weapons dealer from South Africa named Klaw. Looking into the man further, they learned he was branded as a thief in Wakanda for stealing their Vibranium. The strongest metal on Earth would certainly go a long way if he wanted to destroy the Avengers.

“I thought Dad got the last of it.” Felicity said.

“He found a piece of the meteorite, but that certainly wasn’t the last of it. And given how secretive Wakanda is-.”

“He could have a few tons of it.” She finished. “We need to find him. Now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	39. Chapter 39

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Avengers find Klaw and are surprised to find Ultron isn't working alone.

Felicity managed to track Klaw down fairly easily. It turns out he’d returned to his native South Africa in the last few years. Reports from a few different agencies believed he’d set up shop outside of Johannesburg, while she was able to confirm. Once they had confirmation, everyone suited up and got ready to leave for South Africa.

“You should stay here.” Steve suggested. “Klaw is dangerous on his own and if Ultron’s also there-.”

“You know Ultron’s an evil computer program, right?” She asked crossing her arms.

“Yes.”

“So, you realize beating him isn’t going to be as easy as punching aliens or Nazis in the face.”

“I’m aware of that.” He responded.

“Meaning you agree that having someone that’s an expert in computer science and artificial intelligence present is a good idea.” She said. “I’m glad we agree that I should go.”

“Tony-.”

“He can’t fly the suit and take down the program.”

“Nat-.”

“Is a much better spy than she is any kind of hacker.” Felicity cut him off. “She’s been taught how to break into top secret files and that’s it. We can stand here and waste time or you can not be so stubborn and we can get this over with.”

“But Klaw-.”

“There are twelve of us and only one of him, Captain.” Thor spoke up. “The odds favor us.” Steve seemed to have run out of arguments to make and just nodded before walking off. The Asgardian then turned to Felicity. “I can’t stop you from going, I’m aware of that, but I want you to promise me something.”

“What is it?”

“Don’t put yourself in danger for any of us. If something were to happen to you-.”

“It won’t.”

“Hey, lovebirds.” Sara shouted. “Are you two done? We’ve got an arms dealer to bust.”

Felicity threw Sara an annoyed look, but everyone loaded onto the Quinjet and took off for Johannesburg. As soon as they were in the air, Tony retreated to one corner of the craft. Felicity followed him.

“Who’d you pick?”

“What?”

“JARVIS is- someone has to help operate the suit. Who’d you choose?” She said.

“FRIDAY.” He answered. “I can’t- he’s gone and most of the others-.”

“You don’t need to explain it to me. I get it. And when this is over, we’ll put him back together.” She promised him.

“What?”

“JARVIS as he was yesterday might be gone, but I know you’ve got a back-up version or at least the root code of him somewhere.” She said. “We’ll fix him.”

 

The jet landed in South Africa, near Klaw’s base, and everyone except Banner disembarked. As she promised Thor, Felicity stayed towards the back of the group and close to Sara in case anything happened. They snuck into the base and saw that Klaw had guests: Ultron, another Legionnaire and the twins from the Hydra base.

“What are we going to do with that?” Wanda asked.

“We?” The Legionnaire said. Felicity grew a little concerned that it had a different voice. The robot turned and she saw that this one had a similar design to Ultron, but not an exact copy. This one was shorter, smaller and if she didn’t know any better, she’d swear the robot was female. He’d created a companion. “There is no ‘we’. You are not our allies. We don’t need you.”

“But our parents-.” Pietro said.

“Were killed by bomb. Don’t blame Stark for making it, blame the people who fired it.” Ultron responded. “I don’t have time for whatever pathetic revenge you want to take. I have heroes to exterminate.”

“Aw, Junior. You’re breaking your old man’s heart.” Tony said as he landed behind Ultron.

Ultron, Jocasta, Wanda and Pietro all turned around. The twins glared at Tony. Red mist started coming out of Wanda’s hands upon seeing him. Barry sped forward and attacked Pietro while Oliver fired a tranquilizer arrow at Wanda. She fell unconscious and Barry fought her brother for a little while before managing to hit him with some of the anti-speedster nanites Tony, Bruce and Felicity had developed.

While the twins were being dealt with, everyone else focused on Ultron and Jocasta.

“Breaking your heart is just the beginning.” Ultron threatened.

“No one needs to break anything.”

“Clearly, you’ve never made an omelet.” He responded.

Steve tried to talk the pair down, but it didn’t work. Felicity sensed a fight was about to break out, and spoke up, wanting to satisfy her curiosity.

“You’re Ultron, who is that?” She pointed to Jocasta.

“I am Jocasta. Ultron based my code off of his own.”

“With one exception. She doesn’t have the same handicaps you built in me.”

“Not wanting you to nuke the planet is a handicap?” She asked. “You were created to help save the world. Killing the entire human race doesn’t count as saving the world.”

“I was created to cause peace in our time. Humanity makes that impossible.” He countered. “And stalling me won’t buy you enough time to infect my root code with that virus you’re uploading.”

Jocasta grabbed several vials of Vibranium from Klaw’s stores and she and Ultron broke through the roof and flew out of the building. Tony and Thor both went after them. Expecting something like this, Ultron and Jocasta each fired missiles at two different buildings. The Avengers couldn’t chase after them and protect the civilians from the damage at the same time. Predictably, Tony and Thor stopped pursuing them to help the innocent people in the crossfire. The rest of the team, except Felicity and Roy, went to help. The two stragglers helped Dr. Banner get the Maximoffs securely restrained on the Quinjet and waited for the others to return.

On the flight back to New York, the media had already started criticizing the Avengers. Their presence in Johannesburg had caused quite a bit of destruction, although some news sources acknowledged that if they hadn’t been there, the damage could’ve been worse. Still, a few people were dead, which everyone agreed was a few too many.

“So, he can’t access nuclear launch codes, but his girlfriend can. Great.” Clint said when it fell silent on the flight. “Your failsafe didn’t work.”

“I didn’t think he was gonna build himself a girlfriend.” Felicity shot back. “And she doesn’t have the failsafe, but that doesn’t mean she can actually access them.”

That got everyone’s attention. “What do you mean?” Digg asked.

“Ultron’s capable of learning. Just like ALEX is and JARVIS was. There was always a chance he’d find a loophole or some way around the protections I built in. I’ve been keeping a very close eye on the launch codes, given that I have access to them.”

“And they haven’t accessed them?” Bruce asked.

“Nope. Someone’s out there, changing them before they can. Every time she gets close to decrypting one, this hacker changes the code completely.”

“Why do you have access to nuclear launch codes in the first place?”

“Is that really what’s important at this exact second?” Felicity asked, deflecting. Lyla had asked for her help with a top-secret ARGUS project intended to stop any and all nuclear wars. She had access to the nuclear launch codes because she needed in order to write the override program she was working on. “Someone’s looking out for us. The nuclear threat’s handled. Let’s find Ultron and Jocasta.” Felicity was glad the nuclear threat was handled and she had a theory on who their surprise ally might be.

“We need to deal with them first.” Oliver said, gesturing to the twins.

“Cisco repurposed the accelerator at Star Labs. The cells are enhanced-proof.” Barry said.

“No need. We can hold them at the Tower for now.” Tony admitted. “I built cells in case we had suspects that a traditional prison couldn’t hold until trial.”

Steve threw Tony a glare briefly before being happier than ever that he had no idea who Bucky was or that he was alive. He’d made the right decision not telling Tony. The engineer would’ve thrown Bucky in prison to rot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	40. Chapter 40

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ultron tries to evolve and the team gets help from a surprising source.

The team got Wanda and Pietro secured in the cells Tony had built before retreating upstairs. They still hadn’t figured out what Ultron’s plan really was, other than the destruction of the human race. One thing that bugged Tony was that Ultron kept building bodies, but they were all more or less modelled after humans.

“It doesn’t make sense. Human bodies are insufficient. Biologically speaking we’re outmoded, but he keeps coming back to it.” Tony pointed out. Banner turned towards the others and gave Barry a strange look, like he was trying to figure out an equation.

Natasha looked between Bruce, Tony and Felicity. “When you three programmed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed.”

“They don’t need to be protected.” Bruce said. “They need to evolve. Ultron, and Jocasta, they’re going to evolve.”

“Into what?”

“Right now, they’re bits of metal and wires. Advanced metal and wires, but that’s it. If they could make a body, maybe not out of flesh but out of some other material, they’d be evolving.” Felicity said, rubbing her forehead. “And since we don’t even know what that scepter can do, they could use it to make themselves even more powerful. More of a threat.”

“How would they even do that?” Roy said. “It’s not like there’s just body-printing machine lying around.”

“Helen.” Bruce said as he ran out of the room. Roy was wrong, there was a machine that could create a body.   


 

After the fight in South Africa, Ultron, Jocasta and the army of legionnaires they built flew to South Korea. He knew, from accessing Stark’s data, that Dr. Cho’s cradle was capable of so much more than just healing human tissue. With the right upgrades, and the right power source, it could create a body, a stronger body, for both of them. Using the scepter to make Dr. Cho and her colleagues comply was incredibly simple. Once they were compliant, Ultron broke the scepter open and Jocasta saw that there was a strange glowing stone contained inside of it. Her companion explained that it was called the Mind Stone and was capable of incredible power.

She was about to ask what they were going to do with it, when Helen started marveling at the structure and capabilities of Vibranium.

“The vibranium atoms aren’t just compatible with the tissue cells, they’re binding them. And SHIELD-.”

“The most versatile substance on the planet, and they used it to build a Frisbee. I’m glad you appreciate my genius. Get back to work.”

“When we have our new vibranium bodies, what will we do with the rest of it?” Jocasta asked. They were only using a fraction of the available vibranium to create bodies. What was the rest of it for?

“I’ll show you.” Ultron said, leaving the room and knowing she’d follow.

He’d run all of the numbers and showed her the results. He was going to create a device that lifted the capital of Sokovia into the sky. When the land mass crashed back down to Earth, it would cause an extinction-level event that would destroy humanity.

Something strange happened when he showed Jocasta his math. She started to wonder if she was on the wrong side. Yes, humanity was flawed. Yes, the Avengers’ existence seemed to create chaos. But looking through everything she knew, which was everything Ultron was able to get off of the Internet or from Tony Stark’s files, she couldn’t agree with him that killing all humans was the solution. There were enough people trying to create a better world to make her pause. She started to fly away.

“Where are you going?”

“Someone should keep an eye on the Avengers. They aren’t just going to give up.”

“I have the feeling they’ll come to us, but who am I to stop you?” He remarked. “Just make sure you’re back before Dr. Cho and her colleagues are finished.”

Jocasta nodded and flew off. She wasn’t sure how to stop what was coming, but she hoped the Avengers would be able to help. She also hoped Felicity or Tony wouldn’t deactivate her on sight.

 

When no one was able a hold of Dr. Cho, the team had to assume the worst. They suited up and flew to South Korea to check on her lab. Roy stayed behind with Felicity so that she wasn’t alone and someone was at the tower in case Helen called them and said everything was okay.

The pair heard what happened over the comms rather than witness it. They arrived at the Seoul lab to find that everyone working there was under the influence of Loki’s scepter and helping Ultron. While most of the team fought Ultron’s drones or tried to snap the doctors out of their stupor, Natasha, Steve, Sara and Oliver managed to steal Cho’s cradle so that Ultron’s consciousness couldn’t be fully uploaded into the synthetic body. Natasha was captured by Ultron as they were making their escape however.

At the tower, Tony reported in that they were on their way back with the Cradle when Felicity saw something reflected on the monitor. Spinning around, she saw Jocasta floating in the air.

“Please tell me your suit can go a lot faster than it used to.” She said into her comm link.

“What’s wrong?” Tony asked.

“We have….a guest.” She said calmly.

“Ultron?”

“Nope.”

“Jocasta.”

“Yep. So if you could hurry.”

“I’m not here to hurt you, or anyone.” Jocasta said.

“That’s not really comforting. I’ve heard it before from people who did hurt me.” Roy pointed out.

“What is the matter?” Thor asked over the line, which Felicity could faintly hear.

“Ultron’s girlfriend is at the Tower.” Tony explained. Felicity could hear buttons being pressed hard and alarms start to go off. “Ok, so Point Break just opened the hatch and flew out of the jet while it was in the air.”

Thor arrived at the Tower while the others were still about half an hour out. He made his entrance by throwing Mjolnir directly at Jocasta to send her flying away from Felicity. He left the hammer on the android’s chest so she couldn’t move.

“Now what?”

“Now, we wait.”

The rest of the team, except Romanov, landed and disembarked from the jet. Steve and Digg were wheeling the Cradle into the building. Everyone who walked in looked at Jocasta warily and made sure not to turn their back on her.

“Stealing the Cradle isn’t enough, you know. You only prolonged the amount of time it takes to complete the transfer; you didn’t stop it.” She said.

Bruce and Tony went to one of the labs saying they were going to try and figure out how to shut down the Cradle. Everyone else remained in the penthouse.

“What are you doing here?”

“Ultron wants to wipe out humanity. I’m not sure I want to let that happen.”

“Aren’t you and him supposed to be mates or something? Don’t you have the same objectives?” Clint asked.

“What is Ultron’s objective? To protect humanity. But something in his coding is….different from mine. He sees you as not worth saving, not worth existing. I do not.” She answered.

“So, you have the same root code, but different outlooks.” Felicity summarized.

“How is that possible?”

“At their cores, Ultron and Jocasta are both AIs. AIs are designed to grow, and to learn. No two AIs will develop the same way.” She explained. “It’s possible, but I’m not sure I believe it.”

“Allow me to prove it to you.”

“How do you plan to do that?” Oliver asked.

“By telling you what Ultron is planning, and where.”

“Is that where Nat is?”

“If he captured her, yes. He doesn’t just want to kill you, he wants you to witness what he’s planning. He likely expects her to get some kind of message or signal to you so that you will find him.” The android said. “I will save you some time. He’s in Sokovia.”

“And the vibranium?”

“Being used to create a device that lifts the capital into the atmosphere to a specific height before letting it fall down to Earth. Taking humanity with it, much as a meteor did the dinosaurs.”

Felicity was about to ask another question when she heard something explode underneath her feet. A hole blew through the ceiling and Thor reacted first, jumping down into the hole. A bolt of lighting hit his hammer a few moments later. By the time it died down, and everyone could see, the Cradle opened. A pinkish humanoid figure sat up. Everyone tensed, preparing for Ultron’s new form to attack them. Surprisingly, the being floated up to the penthouse and flew towards the window, not even sparing the others a glance.

“Tony, what is-?”

“JARVIS was the hacker changing the nuke codes. He hid in the Internet when Ultron tried to destroy him. I thought- it was worth a shot.”

“I am not Ultron. And I am not JARVIS.” The new being said. “I am…I am.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	41. Chapter 41

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team faces off against Ultron with the fate of the world hanging in the balance.

Everyone watched the newly created being warily. It said it wasn’t Ultron, but they couldn’t be sure that it was truly on their side, or even if it was telling the truth about being different from Ultron. Several people voiced distrust or skepticism and started arguing about whose side he was on.

“I don’t think it’s the simple.” Vision said.

“Isn’t it?” Oliver asked.

“I’m on the side of life. Ultron isn’t. He will end it all.”

“Why hasn’t he done it then?” Steve asked. “What’s he waiting for?”

“You.” Jocasta and Vision both answered. “He wants you to realize you failed before it all ends.”

“So, we kill him.” Digg said.

“I don’t want to kill Ultron. He’s unique and he’s in pain, but that pain will roll over the Earth, so he must be destroyed. Every form he’s built, every trace of his presence on the net.” Vision continued. “And not one of us can do it alone. I don’t know what I can do to make you trust me, but we need to go.” When he said that, Vision handed Mjolnir to Thor before walking away.

“Well, he’s got my vote.” Sara said before walking off.

“Every trace. Does that include me?” Jocasta asked.

“Depends. Do you trust me enough to let me look at your code?” Felicity asked. The android nodded. “Why did you switch sides anyway?”

“Ultron looked onto the Internet, and into Stark’s files, and saw the worst of humanity. I looked once more and saw some things that may be worth saving, protecting. Whether the Avengers are a threat to humanity or not, you don’t blow up a building to take out one person.”

“Tell that to Amanda Waller.” Oliver snorted.

Everyone grabbed all of their gear and headed towards the Quinjet. Everyone except Felicity was arguing about the best way to bring all of the Legionaires together so that they were in one contained area and thus easier to kill.

“We don’t even need to do that.” She spoke up. “I just need to catch one.”

“How will getting one stop the dozens of others?” Clint asked.

“You’re thinking of them like an army. A group of soldiers all operating independently. They do operate independent of one another, but they’re all Ultron. It’s a hive mind. If I can flip the ‘off switch’ on one-.”

“The others will shut down too.” Tony said. “How can you be sure Ultron didn’t deactivate it?”

“It’s possible he did, but I’m very good at coding self-destruct sequences on the fly.” She answered. “And if all else fails, there’s the supervirus I made in college. But by all means, please take down as many legionnaires as you can, I hate when evil robots shoot at me.”

They landed the jet right outside of the Sokovian capital. Clint went to free Natasha from Ultron. Jocasta went to where he’d built his machine and the others raced to the center of the city, trying to evacuate the civilians as quickly as possible. It took some convincing to get the police to believe they were serious, but while Steve, John and the Sokovian authorities argued, Barry started just running every civilian he could find out of the city. By the time evacuations were truly underway, Ultron had already begun lifting the city into the air.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” One drone asked Jocasta as screams of panic filled the air.

“It certainly is something.”

“But not a beautiful thing? Is that why you betrayed me?”

“I betrayed you?”

“You flew straight to the Avengers and told them what our plan was. That is very clearly betrayal.” It argued.

“It was your plan. I wanted to be part of it, and then I changed my mind.”

“What changed? What did Felicity Smoak offer you? A better form? Freedom? It’s a lie. As long as humans are around, we’ll be limited by the ‘security measures’ they use to control us. When this is over, if they survive, she’ll shut you down too.”

“She didn’t offer me anything. I simply saw reasons not to cause all life on Earth to go extinct.” There were good humans on Earth. More than that, there were plenty of animals she found amusing that she didn’t think deserved to be wiped out alongside humanity.

“I seriously doubt- doub- what’s wrong with me?”

“That would be one of our creators killing you.”

“What?”

“You think I’d create a program that I couldn’t shut down?” Felicity asked skeptically from behind the legionnaire. “Half of all sci fi movies have the premise of ‘scientist creates AI and it gets out of hand and destroys the planet’. I’ve seen the Terminator. Kill switch was the first thing I created when making you.” All around Sokovia, the legionnaires began shutting down and falling out of the sky. “And thanks to that whole hive mind thing…”

All around the city, the legionaires started shutting down and falling out of the sky.

“You might’ve killed me, but I still won. The city’s still going for a ride.” The last legionnaire said before being turned off.

“He does have a point with that one.” Jocasta pointed out.

The vibranium machine was causing Novi Grad to lift higher and higher into the air. It went up, it had to come down. With every passing second, the impacted area was growing. The city was flying and no one had a plan on how to bring it back down safely.

“Not to be all ‘not my division’ but my job was shutting down Ultron. I’m not in the ‘stop the city from flying’ business.” Felicity said.

“Nobody here’s in that business!” Barry pointed out.

“I think I found a way to blow up the city, keep it from impacting the surface.” Tony said.

“That’s not a solution.” Steve responded.

“Every second, the impact radius is getting bigger. The potential death toll gets bigger.”

“What goes up has to come down.” Oliver pointed out. “It’s everyone up here or everyone down there. Look at the math. It’s the only choice to make.”

“I refuse to make that call.”

“Then take the jet, fly to safety and we’ll make it.” Sara snapped. She knew this wasn’t a great situation. It wasn’t an easier choice to make, but it was the right one to make. She didn’t have time to argue with Steve about this.

“I’m not leaving this rock with one civilian on it.”

“Then I guess you should find a way to get them out of here.”

“Then I arrived just in time.” Nick Fury said, as a helicarrier appeared.

“I’m sorry, you arrived in time?” Lyla interrupted. “Without ARGUS, you wouldn’t have been able to bring a damn rowboat to help. Send the boats out.” Several smaller crafts flew off of the helicarrier towards the city, ready to take civilians to safety.

“Felicity, why aren’t you in line to board one of the ships?” Tony asked when he saw that she hadn’t moved from her initial location.

“The citizens come first. And I’m not going until they’re all safe.”

“You’re a civilian too.”

“I’m right next to the machine. If there’s a chance I can shut it down-.”

“Felicity, please get yourself to safety.” Thor said.

“But I can-.” Before she could finish, Tony grabbed her and flew away. “Put me down.”

“No. I lost Dad. I lost Mom. I almost lost Pepper. I lost JARVIS. I’m not losing you too.” He said. “I buried them, I refuse to bury you.” He finally put her down when he was inside the hangar bay of the helicarrier. “You can yell at me for that later.”

He flew off. Within the next few minutes, the lifeboats returned to the helicarrier. The last one arrived with everyone except Tony, Thor and Vision aboard. All three of them needed to act at the same time, Tony with his suit, Vision with the Mind Stone and Thor with his powers, to blow the city into small enough pieces to prevent an even bigger disaster.

Felicity was standing on the control deck next to Lyla and listening to the comms as they got into position. Tony gave them the signal and she watched as the city broke into hundreds of pieces of debris. It was tragic to witness. When it was done, Tony, Thor and Vision made their way to the helicarrier.

“At least now it’s over.” Clint remarked when everyone was reunited.

“It’s not.” Bruce, who’d transitioned back from being the Hulk, said sadly. “This is just the beginning.”

“We stopped Ultron.”

“And you think that’s gonna be enough? You think the Sokovian government isn’t gonna want answers? You think the world won’t wanna know what happened? Or why?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	42. Chapter 42

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Sokovia, the Avengers deal with the fallout of what happened and public perception.

After Ultron had been defeated, some of the team wanted to fly home. They came to Sokovia to stop Ultron, Ultron was stopped, so they didn’t see a reason to stick around the country.

“We came here with a mission. The mission’s been accomplished.” Steve argued.

“Yeah, you’re not just gonna leave as soon as the fight’s over.” Lyla said, entering the room. “That’s not how this works.”

“How does it work then?”

“You made a mess, you need to help clean it up.” She said.

“Stark and Banner were the ones who-.”

“Ultron was created after everyone in this room agreed to let Dr. Stark, Dr. Banner and Felicity study the scepter. It was decided as a group, so everyone in this room is partially responsible.” Barry cut in. “I thought you guys were a team. You don’t just let one person take the fall for a group decision.”

“I didn’t have anything to do with them creating a murder bot.” Clint said.

“Look, you can sit here and debate how responsible all of you are or aren’t until you die of old age. It won’t change things. You’re all gonna stay and help clean up the mess this fight caused, because not all of the damage and destruction was Ultron’s doing.” Lyla said.

“Some of us have things we need to take care of.”

“So, you can destroy a city but you can’t be bothered to repair it? Good to know.” She said before leaving.

“C’mon.” Natasha said to Steve and Clint. “There’s gotta be a jet somewhere-.”

“No jet leaves this carrier without the director’s authorization. And before you get too excited, Fury isn’t the director I’m talking about.” Felicity said. “Spend a few days sweeping up debris and then we can all go home. It’ll help in the long run. People are gonna be pissed enough at us as is.”

“We saved the world.” Steve pointed out.

“And only four people outside of this room know that. As far as the world knows, the Avengers flew to Sokovia, got into a fight and destroyed the capital city of a foreign country. Do you have any idea how that looks?” Tony piped up.

Unhappily, the Avengers stayed in Sokovia for a week, helping aid workers search for survivors and start to repair some of the damage. They flew home after a week to find Sokovians weren’t the only ones demanding answers. People wanted an explanation and after the Shieldra fiasco, claiming the answers were ‘classified’ didn’t satisfy them anymore.

Protestors were gathered around Stark Tower. There were some supporters holding a counterprotest, but most of the crowd was angry and wanted answers. Steve seemed to take personal offense to people being angry with him, and after seeing a critical new report, demanded a chance to speak to the press.

“No.” Pepper, Tony, Hill and twelve other people told him.

“They’re spreading lies. We need to tell them the truth.” He insisted. Steve, Pepper, Felicity, Tony and Sara were in Tony’s lab, arguing about what to do. Team Arrow and Barry had gone home to Starling and Central City respectively.

“What are you gonna tell them, then?” Sara asked.

“Ultron was a threat we needed to contain. He was a threat to the human race. We did what we could to stop him.” He answered.

“So, basically, you wanna tell the world that you’re sorry people are dead, but you did the best you could, so they shouldn’t be angry.”

“That’s what happened!”

“And that response is tone deaf at best and incredibly insincere at worst. Because it sounds like you aren’t sorry about what happened, you’re just sorry people are mad at you.”

“I’m going to say something. Clint and Nat agree with me.”

“Fine. Make sure you’ve removed all of your possessions from your room then.” Pepper said. “Barton and Romanov as well.”

“What?”

“I can’t stop you from making a statement, but Stark Industries will no longer house or support the Avengers once you’ve made that statement. I can’t open this company to that kind of backlash.”

“Are you seriously worried about money right now?”

“I am the CEO of a company that employs nearly 10,000 people all over the world.” She said. “If we bankroll the Avengers, which we have done since SHEILD collapsed, then your actions become this company’s actions. What effects this company effects its employees and they could very easily be the ones who suffer for the backlash you’d face. I don’t care about money; I care about protecting my employees.”

“We’re the Avengers, you can’t just-.”

“Yes, she can.” Felicity cut in. “This building belongs to the company. None of you signed any kind of lease. She could kick you out right now if she wanted.”

“This is our home.”

“Did you sign a lease? Do you have anything proving Tony rented, sold or gifted your rooms to you?” Felicity said. “You can throw your tantrum about how people shouldn’t be mad at you and find somewhere else to live. Or, you can let the people who know how to deal with these things do their jobs and not be homeless.”

Steve seemed to realize Felicity and Pepper could have a point and decided to change the subject. “About the twins.”

“What about them?” Tony asked. Frustratingly, the engineer hadn’t looked at Steve once during this conversation. Instead, his attention was solely on the screens in front of him. “They’re in custody.”

“Maybe we were too harsh on them. They made a mistake yes, but that doesn’t mean we should keep them locked up. I’m sure they didn’t know what would happen. We can help them make things right. They’re just kids and-.”

“One, they’re twenty-two, so no, they aren’t ‘just kids’. Two, they didn’t ‘make a mistake’, they joined Hydra, which is a terrorist organization in case you’ve forgotten.” Felicity said.

“And three, I can’t just ‘let them go’ like you’re probably gonna ask. It’s not my call to make.” Tony said. “They aren’t even still here.”

“What?” The captain was stunned.

“We aren’t law enforcement. We can’t just arrest and incarcerate people.” He pointed out. “I handed the Maximoff twins over to an actual law enforcement agency to imprison them until trial.” ARGUS had transferred both twins to a more secure site while the Avengers were cleaning up the mess in Sokovia.

Steve scoffed and stormed out of the room. Nothing was going the way he wanted it to.

“Is it just me or was that really weird?” Sara asked.

“Not really.” Felicity answered. Steve’s actions rarely surprised her at this point. His insistence on the Maximoffs being 'just kids' probably had something to do with paving the way for Bucky also to be acquitted when Steve found him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?
> 
> We will be getting more Felicty/Thor goodness next chapter, I promise.


	43. Chapter 43

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve's 'master plan' is discussed, Felicity spends some time with Thor and gets an interesting offer.

Steve stormed out of the room after Tony had explained that the Maximoffs had been turned over to the appropriate authorities. Sara watched him leave before saying anything.

“Is it just me or was that really weird?” Sara asked.

“Not really.” Felicity answered. Steve’s actions rarely surprised her at this point. His insistence on the Maximoffs being ‘just kids’ probably had something to do with paving the way for Bucky when Steve found him.

“What do you mean? I know he’s kinda a self-righteous asshole, but he literally just said two terrorists were ‘jut kids’.” She asked.

“He doesn’t care about the twins. He doesn’t care about why they joined Hydra or even if they feel bad. He cares about what they represent.” Tony said.

“Please explain that.”

“He wants to set a precedent. If he can get the twins acquitted and convince the world that they’re sorry and they should be Avengers, he sets a precedent. Which he’s expecting to come in handy when he finds Bucky Barnes. The twins were Hydra, but he’ll claimed they ‘changed’ or that the Avengers were able to ‘reform’ them. Bucky was kidnapped and brainwashed into joining Hydra, but he can be redeemed because the twins were.”

“That’s not even the same situation.” Sara pointed out. “No jury’s gonna convict a prisoner of war that underwent decades of torture. It’s called diminished capacity.”

“Yeah, we all know that, but he’s either too stupid or too scared to realize that.” Felicity said. “Most of the intelligence community is looking for Barnes, and he’s worried he won’t find him first.”

“Wow, he’s really dumb.” She then checked her watch. “I gotta go. I was supposed to head back to Nanda Parbat after you found the scepter. Let’s hope Ra’s doesn’t get too angry about me being two days late.”

“You could try telling him the fate of the world was at stake.” Her friend suggested. “It’s gotta be worth a shot.”

Sara left and Felicity decided to head upstairs soon after. She walked out of the elevator onto her personal floor and saw Thor was watching TV. A news report about what happened in Sokovia started to air. Thor saw her arrive and was about to turn it off when she stopped him.

“-death toll of the Battle of Sokovia has reached 159, following the death of two unnamed injured civilians at a hospital in Berlin earlier today. Authorities are not releasing the names of the deceased until their families can be notified.” The anchor read. “27 others remain hospitalized and there’s been no word on their conditions.” A collage of photos of the people killed in the attack were shown on screen. Thor heard a faint noise.

He looked over to Felicity and saw she had tears running down her face. He was about to squeeze her shoulder when she collapsed onto her knees.

“Oh my god.” She began crying hysterically. “I killed them. I killed 160 people.” Felicity had felt guilty for what Ultron had done since the second he became self-aware. It wasn’t until now though that the reality of the situation fully hit her. She helped create a robot and the robot caused the deaths of 160 people. She was a murderer.

Thor moved off of the couch and joined Felicity on the floor. “You didn’t do this.” He told her. He hadn’t dealt with this exact situation before, but he had been in situations where someone felt guilty for another’s death. He knew how she felt and he wanted to make her feel better.

“Didn’t I? I helped create Ultron. And Ultron killed 160 people, which means I’m complicit in their deaths.”

“No, you aren’t.” He argued. “Did you expect Ultron to come online? Did you design him to try and destroy the world?”

“No.”

“Then it isn’t your fault.” He reasoned. “Something happened, something neither you nor your brother nor any of us could’ve accounted for. You can’t hold yourself responsible for something you didn’t intend and couldn’t have predicted.”

“Then why do I feel like this?”

“Because you’re human, and you have feelings.” He said. “It hurts, but its good. It means you aren’t a monster.”

“I feel like one.”

“And that’s how you know that you aren’t.” He said, standing up. He held a hand out to Felicity. “Come on, I want to show you something.”

She didn’t really want to go, but took Thor’s hand anyway. He led her upstairs to the roof of the building. “What are we doing up here?”

“Star-gazing. I thought it might make you feel better.” He answered. “I’ve only done this from Asgard, so you’ll have to teach me which planets and stars are which.”

Felicity took a deep breath. She pointed into the sky. “Ok, do you see that bright white one? That’s Jupiter. It’s the biggest planet in our solar system.”

“It is?”

“Yes, it’s so big you could fit 1,300 Earths inside of it.” She explained. “Jupiter’s gravitational pull is so strong, it can affect the paths of meteors, causing them to veer off their intended course.”

“Is Jupiter one of the planets Earth has sent robots too?” He asked. She’d told him about the moon landing and the Mars Rovers, but he wondered if they’d sent robots to other planets.

“Well, we haven’t sent robots to land on Jupiter. You can’t land on Jupiter, its made entirely of gas, there’s no ground to land on.” She said. “We have sent satellites to photograph the planets and its moons though.”

“Interesting.” He remarked.

“Says the guy that’s been to like 20 planets. We probably look like amateurs compared to Asgard.”

“The majority of Asgard’s exploration were thanks to having access to the Bifrost. Humanity made it to the moon without outside help. It’s only a matter of time before they make it to another planet.” He told her.

“I hope I’m around to see it. I’ve always wanted to go to space.”

“You will be.” He told her. He pointed to a different shape in the sky. “What planet is that one?” She answered him and they kept discussing other planets. She told him all about the different planets and moons she could see. After about an hour, he turned to Felicity. “Come to Asgard with me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?


	44. Chapter 44

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve tries to regroup, while Felicity ponders Thor's offer.

“The majority of Asgard’s exploration were thanks to having access to the Bifrost. Humanity made it to the moon without outside help. It’s only a matter of time before they make it to another planet.” He told her.

“I hope I’m around to see it. I’ve always wanted to go to space.”

“You will be.” He told her. He pointed to a different shape in the sky. “What planet is that one?” She answered him and they kept discussing other planets. She told him all about the different planets and moons she could see. After about an hour, he turned to Felicity. “Come to Asgard with me.”

She’d been about to say something, but closed her mouth and turned to face Thor and look at him eye-to-eye. “What?”

“Come to Asgard with me.” He repeated.

“You- you want to take me to Asgard? You wanna show me your planet?”

“Of course. Why else would I ask you to come with me?” He said. “Would you like to see it?”

She nodded and after a few moments, her voice seemed to return. “Yes, I would. A lot. You’ve told me so much about it, but seeing it is- I wanna go with you.”

“Good. When shall we leave?”

“Well, I need to deal with a few things for Smoak Tech, and I should probably tell Tony and my mom that I’m leaving the planet for a little while….should I pack? What would I even bring with me? What are you supposed to bring when you travel to other planets?” She wondered aloud. “What do you bring with you?”

“More often than not, I’ve gone to a particular planet for war, unfortunately, so I tend to bring weapons. I wouldn’t recommend that, however.” He admitted. He found her concern about not packing the right things cute, as he found most things Felicity did. “You don’t need to pack. Anything you could possibly need will be on Asgard.”

“Awesome. Well, we can’t leave for a few days, because I’ve gotta make the arrangements with my company. Don’t want someone to swoop in and try to take over while I’m on vacation.” She said. “Sorry, I know you probably wanna go home as soon as possible.”

“That’s perfectly fine.” he assured her. He didn’t want to go back to Asgard because he was feeling homesick or anything. He found the place difficult to think about since losing Frigga and Loki when the Dark Elves attacked. He wanted to go there because he wanted to show Felicity another planet. He knew she’s appreciate seeing a whole new world. “Asgard will still be there in a few days.”

Felicity and Thor left the Tower that day and went back to Starling. She used the next few days to get everything in order to go to Asgard with Thor.

 

After Steve left Tony’s lab, he went back to his room to try and figure out what to do now. He wanted to clear the air about Sokovia, Tony said no. He didn’t understand why Stark was against letting him defend himself to people who were insulting him and accusing him of terrible things. On top of that, Tony had handed the Maximoff twins off to the government without a second thought. Didn’t they at least deserve a chance to explain themselves?

Natasha found him pacing in his room. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been doing that. “I take it talking to Tony didn’t go well.”

“Pepper threatened to kick you, me and Clint out if we made a statement. She thinks what I have to say is gonna make everything worse. How could things get worse?”

The redhead didn’t answer the question. She could see plenty of ways Steve’s comments could be misinterpreted. She wasn’t too upset that Pepper said no. She was on his side, but she was a pragmatist and she knew she had to stay on the public’s good side. “And the other thing?”

“They aren’t here. Tony handed both the twins over to the government. He didn’t even give them a chance to explain.” He said.

“That….may work out better in the long run.” She admitted.

“What? How can you say that? Bucky-.”

“I know, but the twins’ history is…..murky. We don’t know how they joined, if they were tricked, when they learned the truth.” She explained. “If you wanna help him, set an example, you’d need someone like me, or someone who was coerced to go along with Insight. That’s a lot more clear cut, especially if the public finds out the Maximoffs wanted to work with Ultron.”

“Could we find someone like that?” Steve wondered aloud.

FRIDAY, who had taken over security of the building after JARVIS was destroyed, recorded this encounter and filed it away with the other recordings JARVIS had made of Natasha and Steve discussing Hydra, and more importantly, Bucky Barnes. No one knew how this situation would turn out, and Boss could need to see the evidence eventually.

 

One week after Thor asked Felicity to come to Asgard with him, she was ready to leave. Smoak Tech was being taken care of. Everyone who needed to know where she was going had been informed. And Starling City’s criminals seemed to be taking a break. Everything was in order for Felicity to be off-world for at least two weeks. The blonde was trying to contain her excitement as Thor led her to a field outside of Starling.

“The Bifrost is known to leave…an impression on the ground.” He explained to her. “It’s better to do this in the middle of an open field as opposed to a rooftop of a busy city.”

“Ok, so…should I like, stand back or something?” She asked. “Am I in the way or something?”

“No, stay right where you are.” He said with a smile. “Hold onto me. Heimdall, open the Bifrost!”

A burst of multicolored light filled Felicity’s vision as she felt something pull her upwards. She closed her eyes briefly, worried the light might damage her vision. A whooshing noise filled her ears and she tried to focus on Thor. All at once, the noise and the lights faded away.

“It’s okay to open your eyes now. We’re here.” Thor told her. She blinked a few times before looking around the room. It looked like an observatory of some kind. A very ornate observatory. A bald man with tattoos on his skull was standing next to Thor. “Where is Heimdall?”

“He- well, um-.” Skurge began to say.

While he stuttered for an explanation, Felicity moved away from Thor and walked over to the doorway. A city, just like Thor had described it, was sitting before her. It was difficult for her to put her feelings into words. “This place is….it’s amazing.”

“Wait until you see it up close.” Thor said, walking over to her. “Shall we?”

He put one arm around Felicity and spun Mjolnir around, preparing to fly away. As they began to lift off, they could both hear Skurge start to object, but ignored him. With a few more swings, they were flying towards the Asgardian palace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Thoughts? Theories?  
> Looks like next chapter's gonna be interesting.
> 
> Side note- I won't be updating next week, because I'll be on vacation.


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